N. Korea Concedes on Talks

SEOUL —  In its first concession after months of stalemate, North Korea said Saturday that it would be willing to negotiate over its nuclear plans in whatever forum is preferred by the United States.

The offer was made in a statement by the North’s official news service, which is better known for its colorful screeds against U.S. imperialism. The conciliatory tone and the timing suggested that the recalcitrant regime in Pyongyang may have been cowed by the swift U.S. victory in Iraq and is softening its bargaining position.

Until now, North Korea has refused to talk to intermediaries or international organizations, such as the United Nations, over the nuclear program it resumed last year in violation of a 1994 agreement. It has insisted that talks be held only directly with the United States.

But in Saturday’s statement, attributed to an unnamed spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, it said it would accept talks in a multilateral setting -- a significant concession given the minutiae over which Pyongyang has refused to budge.

“If the U.S. is ready to make a bold switch-over in its Korea policy for a settlement of the nuclear issue, [North Korea] will not stick to any particular dialogue format,” read the statement carried by the KCNA news service. “The solution to the issue depends on what is the real intention of the U.S.”

U.S. officials interpreted the statement as signaling a new potential for resolving the standoff over Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions, which Washington believes include building a nuclear arsenal.

“We noted the statement with interest. And we expect to follow up through appropriate diplomatic channels,” State Department spokeswoman Amanda Batt said Saturday.

The United States continues to seek a “peaceful end” to North Korea’s suspected nuclear weapons program “through diplomacy and in close consultation with our allies” in other concerned states, Batt said.

Added another official, who requested anonymity: “We’re encouraged if the North Koreans want to talk about this issue, as previously they said they wouldn’t.”

The State Department said the U.N. Security Council will continue to focus on the matter while key governments discuss ideas for a multilateral approach.

“This program is a serious concern to the entire international community and a challenge to the global nonproliferation regime. As such, there is widespread recognition that this issue must be addressed in a multilateral forum,” Batt said.

In recent weeks, there have been other clues that North Korea might be reining in the hard-line rhetoric and tactics it had been employing with regard to its nuclear plans. Most notably -- and contrary to expectations that it would exploit the distraction of the Iraq war -- the North has not conducted a ballistic missile test and has not restarted a reprocessing plant that could produce weapons-grade plutonium out of spent fuel rods from its nuclear reactor.

In addition, there have been several low-level, back-channel meetings that might have helped pave the way for future negotiations, including a meeting March 31 in New York between North Korea’s deputy U.N. ambassador, Han Song Ryol, and U.S. special envoy Jack Pritchard. That is thought to have been the North’s first official contact with a representative of the U.S. government since October, when Assistant Secretary of State James A. Kelly confronted Pyongyang with charges that it had been secretly enriching uranium in an apparent effort to make a nuclear bomb. The U.S. moved to cut off fuel aid to North Korea shortly afterward.

Since then, North Korea has expelled U.N. nuclear inspectors from the country and restarted a small nuclear reactor. It has also become the first country to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, a move that became effective Thursday.

Some recent visitors to Pyongyang, however, have said the North Korean leadership is terrified that it will be the next target of U.S. preemptive strikes after the war in Iraq is concluded -- and that, as in Iraq, Washington will seek a change of regime. President Bush has expressed disdain for North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in much the same terms he has used about Saddam Hussein.

“I expect they have been spending a lot of time in their bunkers, watching the war on CNN,” said a former South Korean official who maintains close ties to the government.

On Friday, North Korea accused Washington of “plotting to apply the pattern in Iraq to us ... by demanding [nuclear] inspections to find an excuse for invasion.”

“Allowing inspections and disarming ourselves are like taking off our pants,” said state-run Central TV, which was monitored by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.

Pyongyang might also be swayed to engage in multilateral talks by increased pressure from its powerful neighbors. Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Alexander Losyukov, was quoted Friday as saying that Russia might reconsider its long-standing opposition to sanctions against North Korea if the regime persists with its nuclear program. Last month, China reportedly cut off an oil pipeline to the North for three days in what was widely viewed as a message to Pyongyang to get back in line.

One idea that has been bandied about is a six-way meeting that would include the United States and North Korea along with Pyongyang’s closest neighbors: China, South Korea, Japan and Russia. Diplomats say, however, that they do not expect any major initiative on North Korea until after a meeting scheduled for May 14 in Washington between Bush and new South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun.

On Saturday, Roh told a group of foreign dignitaries in Seoul that South Korea would not support any U.S. policy aimed at toppling the North Korean regime.

“We do not want war, nor the collapse of North Korea,” Roh’s office quoted him as saying. He also urged a concerted international effort to resolve the standoff, saying, “The North Korean nuclear issue is now looming larger than ever.”

*

Times staff writer Robin Wright in Washington contributed to this report.