Team says it's too early to know N. Korea's nuclear development

SEOUL, South Korea -- U.S. Congressional aides who visited North Korea's secretive nuclear plant said they have a lot of information to digest before they can say how far the communist country has come in its nuclear weapons development, a senior South Korean official said Monday.

Republican aide Keith Luse and Democratic colleague Frank Jannuzi, both staffers for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, met with South Korean officials to discuss last week's trip to the Yongbyon nuclear complex.

"They said they cannot say that anything was proven or verified during their trip," said Wi Sung-lac, head of the South Korean Foreign Ministry's North American Affairs Bureau.

"They said many things were unclear and they needed more discussions and analysis before coming to their own assessment."

The visit -- by five U.S. delegates including Luse and Jannuzi -- was the first by outsiders since the North expelled U.N. inspectors in late 2002. The North said it showed the team its "nuclear deterrent" -- though what exactly they saw still has not been made public.

The delegates, including former Los Alamos Laboratory director Sig Hecker, held discussions with North Korean nuclear scientists, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan and Lt. Gen. Ri Chan Bok, the North Korean military's point man at talks with the American-led United Nations Command in Seoul, Wi said.

"The North Koreans reiterated that they will freeze their nuclear activities only in return for compensation, and they expressed their willingness for dialogue," he said, quoting the Congressional aides.

South Korea expected more information from the U.S. delegates after they report to their superiors in Washington, Wi added.

Luse said more details would be made public at a Jan. 20 hearing of their Senate committee.

"We have had a full day of meeting with South Korean officials," Jannuzi said. "We hope that our visit here helps to continue the tradition of strong coordination between Washington and Seoul and contribute to the success of six-party talks."

Also Monday, North Korea's Foreign Ministry reiterated that the country was willing to freeze its nuclear activities at Yongbyon in return for oil supplies and economic aid from the United States.

The United States has demanded that the North begin dismantling its nuclear programs before receiving any concessions.

The crisis flared in October 2002 when U.S. officials accused North Korea of running a secret nuclear program in violation of a 1994 deal requiring the North to freeze its nuclear facilities. Washington and its allies cut off free oil shipments, also part of the 1994 accord.

North Korea responded by ejecting U.N. monitors and restarting a reactor at Yongbyon that generates spent fuel rods laced with plutonium.

Citing unnamed U.S. officials, the Washington Post reported the U.S. group had been shown recently reprocessed plutonium, the fuel for nuclear weapons. Luse and Jannuzi denied the report, Wi said.

The visit came as the United States, China, Russia, Japan and the two Koreas are trying to arrange a new round of talks on ending the standoff over the North's nuclear program. A first round of six-nation talks ended in Beijing in August without much progress.