North Korea's demands cloud nuclear disarmament deal

NORTH KOREA insisted yesterday it won't dismantle its nuclear weapons programme until the US gives it civilian nuclear reactors, casting doubt on a disarmament agreement reached a day earlier during international talks.

Washington reiterated its rejection of the reactor demand and joined China in urging North Korea to stick to the agreement announced on Monday in which it pledged to abandon all its nuclear programmes in exchange for economic aid and security assurances.

North Korea's new demands underlined its unpredictable nature and deflated some optimism from the Beijing agreement, the first since negotiations began in August 2003 among the two Koreas, the US, China, Japan and Russia.

"The US should not even dream of the issue of [North Korea's] dismantlement of its nuclear deterrent before providing [light-water reactors], a physical guarantee for confidence-building," the North Korean Foreign Ministry said.

US officials dismissed the demand. "This is not the agreement that they signed, and we'll give them some time to reflect on the agreement they signed," US State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack said.

The announcement on Monday that North Korea would dismantle existing weapons and stop building new ones, contained no deadlines and few details.

The six parties in the talks agreed to meet again in November, when the difficult questions of verification and timetables would be on the table.

North Korea had demanded since the latest round of six-party talks began last week in the Chinese capital that it be given a light-water reactor - a type less easily diverted for weapons use - in exchange for disarming. US officials opposed the idea, maintaining North Korea could not be trusted with any nuclear programme.

The issue was side-stepped on Monday, with participants saying they would discuss it later - "at an appropriate time." North Korea, however, chose to immediately press the issue, essentially introducing a major condition on its pledge to disarm.

South Korea remained optimistic, with its point man on North Korea relations saying the country's latest statement isn't likely to derail the Beijing deal.