*** TOPIC OF THE WEEK (Part 1)

N. Korea Willing to Discuss Uranium Enrichment Program at Six-party Talks

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- In what appears to be another dialogue offer, North Korea has said it is willing to discuss its uranium enrichment program within the framework of the six-party nuclear talks once they resume, the North's state-run media said on March 15.

   Pyongyang's intention to do so was revealed during a meeting between North Korean officials and visiting Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin in Pyongyang, the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

   North Korea told the Russian official that Pyongyang was ready to rejoin the talks "without any precondition" and hopes to work "on the principle of simultaneous action," according to the KCNA.

   The comments by an unidentified North Korean foreign ministry spokesperson appeared to improve the prospect for the resumption of the denuclearization-for-aid talks that were last held in late 2008, as regional powers have been at odds over when and how to resume the stalled dialogue.

   While Pyongyang's traditional allies China and Russia are keen to immediately resume the talks, Seoul and Washington have been stepping up efforts to first have the U.N. Security Council condemn the North's uranium program as one of the preconditions.

   South Korea also demands that the North apologize for the two deadly attacks it made last year. The six-party talks, involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia have been stalled since December 2008.

   The senior Russian official was in Pyongyang for a four-day trip that ended on March 14. Pyongyang's recent proposal appears to indicate the communist state's growing sense of urgency over resuming its dialogue with regional powers including South Korea and the U.S. to earn much-needed aid in the form of food and fuel.

   North Korea, which conducted two atomic tests and three long-range missile tests in the past, disclosed a sophisticated uranium enrichment facility to outside experts in November, sparking renewed concerns about its ongoing nuclear ambitions.

   Although Pyongyang claims it only seeks to generate electricity, uranium enrichment would provide North Korea with an additional way of making atomic bombs, second to its known plutonium-based program.

   South Korea and the U.S. have said they will seek a U.N. Security Council presidential statement to condemn the move before resuming the talks also involving the North, China, Japan and Russia.

   China, North Korea's closest socialist ally, wants the uranium issue to be dealt with in the six-party talks. Russia, another key player in the talks, has been openly critical of North Korea's uranium enrichment activity.

   A South Korean official rejected the North's comment, saying it does not have much meaning. "Our position is that the right conditions should be created for six-party talks, and therefore we don't attach much meaning" to what the North said, the official said on condition of anonymity.

   The North's calls for unconditional talks mean that Pyongyang won't take the preparatory steps that the South wants it to take, the official said, referring to Seoul's long-running calls for the North to take concrete action to demonstrate its denuclearization commitment.

   Pyongyang's willingness to bring up the uranium program in the six-party talks is "not enough to prove its earnestness to disarm" under its previous pledge in 2009, another Seoul official said. "As we have repeated, words don't have any meaning unless they are taken into action," the official said.

   Meanwhile, Seoul's deputy nuclear envoy Cho Hyun-dong left for Moscow for talks with his Russian counterparts late on March 15, apparently hoping to secure Moscow's strong support in taking Pyongyang's uranium program to the U.N. Security Council and standing firm about the communist state's provocations.

   According to the KCNA report, Borodavkin insisted that the North "take constructive measures" such as a halt its nuclear and missile tests, allow visits by monitors to a nuclear plant and discuss uranium enrichment within the framework of six-party talks.

   North Korea "expressed its stand that it can go out to the six-party talks without any precondition, it is not opposed to the discussion of the above-said issue at the six-party talks," the KCNA said, quoting the unidentified North Korean foreign ministry spokesperson.

   North Korea bolted from the six-party talks in 2009 when it drew world condemnation for its long-range rocket launch, seen as a missile test in essence. The country has since shown a willingness to return to the talks, pledging to work toward denuclearization.

   South Korea, Japan and the U.S. demand the North first show through action its guarantee that it will not relapse into provocative behavior or resume nuclear arms development. Washington and Seoul do not officially recognize Pyongyang as a nuclear power.

   The relations between the two Koreas are at the worst point in at least a decade after the North bombarded a South Korean island last year, killing four people. No high-level negotiations have been held between the sides since the South's President Lee Myung-bak came to power in 2008 with a pledge to push the North to end its nuclear arms programs.

   In an earlier KCNA report, an unnamed North Korean representative to the disarmament talks in Switzerland said last week that his "nuclear-armed" country would work toward denuclearization only if nuclear threats against it are irreversibly removed.

   "We believe it is an urgent priority to produce an international legal apparatus that thoroughly bans the use and threat of nuclear arms," the envoy was quoted as saying, adding that Pyongyang maintains the right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

   North Korea has long claimed that it has no choice but to develop nuclear arms because of persisting threats of a nuclear invasion by the U.S., which has 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea.

   Analysts believe the North is increasingly pressured into making concessions as its food shortages deepen. They say North Korea also needs to improve its relations with the outside world in an effort to create a setting favorable to its hereditary power succession.

   Washington also remained wary about North Korea's intentions amid the socialist state's growing nuclear and missile threats. Adm. Mike Mullen, head of Washington's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he "worries a great deal" about North Korea deploying intercontinental ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads capable of hitting the U.S. mainland, according to a transcript released by the Pentagon this week.

   News reports have said Pyongyang may be digging a new tunnel in preparation for a third nuclear test and has completed construction of a launch site to test-fire a ballistic missile that can reach the U.S.

   Washington also recently classified North Korea as the main exporter of weapons of mass destruction to Middle Eastern nations such as Iran and Syria, Radio Free Asia reported. The declaration was made by the director of national intelligence in its report to Congress last month, the U.S.-funded station said.

   During his visit to North Korea, Borodavkin suggested the two Koreas could work with Moscow to link railways, gas pipelines and power lines among the three countries, saying that such economic cooperation project could help ease tension on the Korean Peninsula, the KCNA said.

   The North "expressed support for the projects of the Russian side for tripartite economic cooperation and manifested its willingness to positively examine the proposal," the KCNA said.

   The project, if pushed for, would fall in line with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak's election campaign pledge to link the three countries and boost energy and other forms of economic cooperation.

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