N. Korea ignores disarmament plea

SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea appealed to North Korea to scrap its nuclear weapons program, but got no response Sunday on the first of three days of talks.

The talks in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang originally were to focus on reconciliation between the nations on the divided peninsula.

But South Korea devoted most of its keynote speech to persuading the North that its nuclear weapons program violates a 1994 agreement with the United States and should be halted.

"We demanded that North Korea faithfully honor all international agreements it has signed," Rhee Bong-jo, a South Korean spokesman, said after the first round of talks.

North Korea did not respond, but officials cautioned their counterparts from the south "not to be too pessimistic" about prospects for agreements.

The United States is seeking support for a tough diplomatic and economic stance toward North Korea from its main trading and diplomatic partners in the region, South Korea, Japan and China.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, speaking on Fox News Sunday, said oil shipments, civilian nuclear power assistance and other forms of aid would be reviewed in "a multilateral way."

"We really want to do it in concert with our friends and allies and not start taking immediate, precipitous steps, because there are some very sensitive issues here," he said.

The North's chief delegate, Kim Ryong Song, even predicted "good results" from the talks, according to pool reports distributed in Seoul, the South's capital.

South Korean officials said they hoped to hear a North Korean response during another round of talks today.

The talks, the eighth in a series since a historic inter-Korean summit in 2000, were scheduled to continue until Tuesday.

"Overall, the atmosphere of the talks was heavy, but sincere," Rhee said. He also said other issues taken up included a proposal to account for thousands of people missing during and after the 1950-53 Korean War.

During talks with visiting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly in Pyongyang on Oct. 3-5, North Korean officials acknowledged they had a uranium-enriching program to make weapons.

The program violates a 1994 agreement for energy-starved North Korea to abandon its suspected nuclear weapons program in exchange for two modern, light-water nuclear reactors and 500,000 tons of fuel oil a year until the reactors are completed.

During the talks with Kelly, North Korean officials said they considered the 1994 agreement invalid because the reactors were not expected to be finished by 2003 as promised. The project has been delayed by funding problems and tension on the Korean Peninsula.

Japan most receptive ally in front against N.Korea

TOKYO -- U.S. envoys working to forge a united front against North Korea are finding their most receptive ally in Japan, where revelations of kidnappings and spying by North Korea have already hardened opinion against the secretive state.

James A. Kelly, an assistant secretary of state, started talks Sunday with Japanese officials on what to do about North Korea's admission that it has restarted its nuclear weapons program. Japanese newspapers and politicians called for a tough stance.

"It is outrageous that North Korea would have nuclear arms and weapons of mass destruction when its people are starving," Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said while campaigning for his party's candidate in a by-election. "It should ensure good living standards for its people."

His predecessor, former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, said of North Korea in another campaign speech, "There is a very dangerous country in the neighborhood that has conducted savage acts such as abductions and is aiming its nuclear missiles right at Japan."

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