SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea offered today to
refrain from producing nuclear weapons as a “bold
concession” to rekindle talks over its arms programs.

The move comes as the United States, China, Russia, Japan and
the two Koreas scramble to arrange a new round of negotiations,
with South Korea and Russian saying they are unlikely this
month.

North Korea has said before it is willing to freeze its
“nuclear activities” in exchange for U.S. aid and being
taken off Washington’s roster of terrorism sponsoring
nations.

Today it specified it was “set to refrain from testing and
production of nuclear weapons and stop even operating (its) nuclear
power industry for a peaceful purpose.”

In a commentary carried by the official KCNA news agency, North
Korea called the offer “one more bold concession.”

The United States has said it wants North Korea to verifiably
begin dismantling its nuclear weapons programs before it delivers
any concessions.

In Moscow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov
blamed the delay yesterday on disagreements over the wording of a
final document for the talks.

He said efforts to set up more talks were “very
difficult” and that a final document could not be forged
because of “mistrust and increased demands on each
other” by the United States and North Korea, according to
Russia’s Interfax news agency.

Today, North Korea said its first-step proposal should be the
focus of preparations for new talks.

“If the United States keeps ignoring our efforts and
continues to pressurize the DPRK to scrap its nuclear weapons
program first while shelving the issue of making a switchover in
its policy toward the DPRK, the basis of dialogue will be
demolished and a shadow will be cast over the prospects of
talks,” the North’s official news agency KCNA said in a
commentary.

KCNA was monitored by South Korea’s Yonhap news
agency.

DPRK stands for Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,
North Korea’s official name.

Chinese and Russian officials met in Moscow yesterday to try
smoothing a way toward a new session of six-nation talks. A first
round of talks in Beijing in August ended with little progress.

Russia and China are working on a compromise that assumes the
liquidation of the North Korean nuclear program may take more than
one year.

Agreement to a “freeze” of nuclear work by Pyongyang
would be the first step toward dismantlement, according to
ITAR-Tass.

There were hopes a new round could open early this year, after
differences between the United States and North Korea prevented
more negotiations before the close of 2003.

But Russian and South Korean officials said yesterday talks
would probably not happen this month.

, citing differences between the Washington and Pyongyang as
well as scheduling difficulties around the Russian Christmas
holiday and the Chinese Lunar New Year, both of which come in
January.

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