N. Korean, U.S. Aides Meet on A-Arms Impasse

WASHINGTON — U.S. officials met with North Korean officials Friday in New York City and apparently turned down a proposal under which the Pyongyang government would only partially comply with international requirements for inspection of its nuclear facilities.

White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers told reporters that officials of the two countries discussed “the U.S. demands that North Korea open its sites to nuclear inspection and resume dialogue with South Korea.”

That means there is no sign of a resolution of the diplomatic stalemate over North Korea’s nuclear program. If North Korea does not allow the inspections, the United States has suggested it may have to resort to economic sanctions against Pyongyang. For its part, North Korea has said it would consider imposition of sanctions an act of war.

A week ago, North Korean officials at the United Nations proposed that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) be allowed to inspect five of the seven facilities it has acknowledged to be part of its nuclear program. The two sites at which inspections would not have been permitted are the country’s two most important installations, the main nuclear plant and reprocessing facility at Yongbyon.

At the White House, Myers said the United States had made a counterproposal to North Korea but refused to say what it was. She made clear, however, that the United States had stuck to at least the general outlines of its position and did not agree to the North Koreans’ partial offer.

North Korea suggested Thursday that its partial offer was the best it would make, saying that if the United States refuses to accept it, North Korea “cannot but form the final judgment that the United States no longer has the intention to continue dialogue.”

Over the past week, the Clinton Administration worked out a response to the North Korean offer through talks with South Korea and Japan.

At the same time, President Clinton adopted a more pessimistic tone, serving notice that the effort to work out a diplomatic solution with North Korea might not work.

Early this year, North Korea threatened to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty rather than allow the IAEA to inspect its nuclear facilities. It withdrew the threat last summer, but has refused to allow IAEA inspectors even to change batteries and film on the monitoring devices in North Korean nuclear plants.