North Korea makes surprise request for direct negotiations with South

The stand-off with North Korea over its alleged nuclear weapons ambitions took another unexpected turn yesterday when the regime of Kim Jong Il proposed holding direct talks with South Korea later this month.

Officials from the North made the request in a telephone call to counterparts from the South at the border village of Panmunjom. They asked for cabinet-level talks between the two Koreas in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, from 27 to 29 April.

The approach came just one day after Pyongyang appeared to intensifythe crisis by proclaiming that its scientists had almost finished reprocessing spent fuel rods at Yongbyon, its main nuclear facility, with a view to producing weapons-grade plutonium.

American diplomats were uncertain how to assess the latest signals from Pyongyang. The United States and North Korea are preparing to begin highly delicate talks along with China in Beijing possibly as soon as this week.

Pyongyang has often tried to drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington, traditional allies, arguing that the peninsula's future should be left to the two Koreas to sort out. In a message delivered by the state news agency, KCNA, the regime emphasised "the need to resourcefully settle the issue of inter-Korean relations by the nation itself through national co-operation".

Meanwhile, the North raised the spectre of an American military attack on its soil yesterday in an apparent attempt to stir anti-American sentiment in the South. North Korea's state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper said all Koreans "should firmly unite as one to resolutely smash the US moves for a war of aggression in order to protect the destiny of the nation and the future of a reunified country".

Washington has also been unsettled by Pyongyang's assertions on the reprocessing of fuel rods. A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman was quoted at the weekend as saying: "We are successfully reprocessing more than 8,000 spent fuel rods at the final phase."

There was some argument yesterday over the accuracy of the statement, amid suggestions that the remarks of the spokesman may have been mistranslated. A Korean version published on Saturday said that facilities were at the "final stage" before reprocessing. There is no certainty among Western intelligence agencies that the reprocessing of rods at Yongbyon has even begun.

Officials in Seoul interpreted the remark as another effort by Pyongyang to raise the stakes ahead of its meeting with the US, set to be the first since last October when the crisis erupted.

"We think North Korea is trying to gain leverage ahead of the talks," argued South Korea's top security adviser, Ra Jong-il.

Diplomatic experts in the West are divided over Pyongyang's intentions. While some believe that it is in earnest when it proclaims its intention to reprocess the rods and build its nuclear arsenal, others speculate that Kim Jong Il is simply trying to wrest new economic concessions from the West before backing down.