US rejects idea of one-on-one N. Korea talks

       The US said yesterday that disarming North Korea of its nuclear weapons required a multilateral solution, rejecting calls for it to drop sixparty talks for one-on-one dialogue with Pyongyang.
       US special representative on North Korea Stephen Bosworth held a third day of talks with South Korean officials to discuss ways to press Pyongyang to return to the negotiating table, after arriving on Friday.
       His trip came as the North announced experimental uranium enrichment was entering the completion phase, in a defiant response to tougher UN sanctions imposed after its May 25 nuclear test and separate missile launches.
       Mr Bosworth said that following "very useful" conversations with Seoul officials, the two sides had agreed to continue to push for the North's nuclear disarmament within the existing framework of six-party talks.
       The North has been seeking bilateral talks with the United States since it quit the six-way process grouping the two Koreas, the US, Japan, Russia and China in April in protest at the UN censure of a rocket launch.
       "Because of the nature of this issue,its regional implications and its global implications, this is a problem that requires a multilateral solution," Mr Bosworth said, wrapping up his Seoul visit."As we have indicated in the past we are prepared to engage bilaterally as well with the North Koreans, but only in the context of the six-party process in order to facilitate the sixparty exercise."
       The US envoy was in Seoul as part of a three-nation Asian tour that had already taken him to Beijing. He was due to fly to Tokyo later yesterday.
       Mr Bosworth met with Seoul's chief nuclear envoy Wi Sung-lac and Unification Minister Hyun In-taek on Saturday, and Foreign Minister Yu Myunghwan yesterday.
       As well as its announcement on uranium, North Korea said reprocessing of spent reactor fuel rods was also in the final phase and extracted plutonium was being weaponised. Pyongyang had for years denied US allegations of a secret highly enriched uranium (HEU)programme, in addition to its admitted plutonium-based operation.
       "Any indication of a nuclear programme on the part of North Korea,whether it is HEU or anything else, is a subject of concern, and one which would have to be addressed if we are going to deal comprehensively with the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula," Mr Bosworth said.
       But he said the North's claims of progress in its uranium programme brought no real change to regional security.
       The US and Russia will discuss the North Korean nuclear issue in Seoul this week, with Moscow's deputy nuclear envoy Grigory Logvinov to visit South Korea today.