S. Korea leads diplomatic blitz on defusing N. Korean crisis

SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea won a promise from Russia on Sunday to press North Korea over its nuclear program, as Seoul prepared to unveil to the United States new proposals aimed at defusing the crisis with its communist neighbor.

As the South launched a diplomatic blitz, the North opened the door to possible mediation -- though it said it would heighten its combat readiness and denounced the United States.

In Moscow -- one of the isolated North's few allies -- South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Hang-kyung met with his Russian counterpart, Alexander Losyukov.

Losyukov said after the talks that Moscow and Seoul "agreed to make joint efforts to ease the crisis" and persuade the parties to sit down for talks, though he stopped short of promising Russian mediation.

"The slide to unacceptable actions must be stopped," Losyukov was quoted as saying by the Russian news agency Interfax. "Obviously, our contacts with North Korean colleagues will be intensified."

A separate team of South Korean diplomats also was expected to present a compromise solution to the United States and Japan on Monday and Tuesday, when the three allies meet in Washington to chart a joint strategy on North Korea. Seoul said it will send a top presidential envoy to the United States for more talks later this week.

No details have been disclosed on the South's proposals, but it is expected to involve North Korean concessions on nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees.

The current standoff began when North Korea announced last month that it was reviving its main nuclear complex, frozen since a 1994 deal with the United States, and forced out international inspectors at the site. Experts believe the complex can be used to produce several nuclear weapons within months.

Emergency session today

The International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board of governors planned to hold an emergency session today to review the nuclear crisis.

A senior nuclear agency official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity that the IAEA almost certainly would refer the dispute to the U.N. Security Council later today -- a move that could lead to punitive sanctions or other actions against the reclusive nation's regime.

North Korea's top military brass vowed in a meeting in the capital, Pyongyang, on Saturday to increase the communist army's combat readiness. A separate statement from the official Korean Central News Agency accused the United States of trying to disarm the North and called the United States the "main obstacle" of Korean reunification.

But North Korea left open the possibility of other countries mediating the dispute -- an apparent nod to Seoul's diplomatic attempts.

Japan and the United States have agreed to pursue a diplomatic end, Japan's Foreign Ministry said after telephone talks between Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi and Secretary of State Colin Powell late Saturday.

After his closed-door meeting with the Korean diplomat, Losyukov said it was important to get all sides to the negotiating table. He said both Moscow and Seoul opposed putting the issue before the Security Council "before other possibilities for negotiating have been used up."

Losyukov would not elaborate on possible ways out of the crisis, but Interfax quoted unidentified diplomats as saying that the possibility of offering "multilateral security guarantees" to Pyongyang in exchange for nuclear concessions was under discussion.

Kim later said such guarantees would have to include the United States.

Seoul's diplomatic offensive underlines its drive to mediate between its key ally, the United States, and its enemy, North Korea. But brokering a deal won't be easy.

The United States refuses to talk until the North scraps its nuclear programs. North Korea insists Washington must take the first step by signing a nonaggression pact.

Top U.S. officials will fly to Seoul later in the week and to Japan, South Korea and China later this month for more talks.