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SEOUL, Tuesday (AFP) South Korea sent national security advisor Ra Jong-Yil to Washington Tuesday for talks on North Korea's offer to scrap its nuclear weapons in return for diplomatic, political and economic concessions.

Ra is scheduled to meet with top officials including Secretary of State Colin Powell, who said Monday North Korea's offer came during three-way talks among US, North Korean and Chinese diplomats last week in Beijing. At the same meeting Pyongyang confirmed it had nuclear weapons, and threatened to prove it with a "display," Powell said.

"The North Koreans acknowledged a number of things that they were doing and, in effect, said that these are now up for further discussion," said Powell.

"They did put forward a plan that would ultimately deal with their nuclear capability and their missile activities, but they, of course, expect something considerable in return," Powell said.

"We are studying that plan, we are examining it with our friends and allies," Powell said, adding that talks were now underway with the South Korean, Japanese, Russian, Australian and other governments.

"It was useful to get it all out on the table and see where we go from here," he said, referring to the April 23-25 meeting in Beijing. Powell did not indicate whether Washington would accept the offer, and did not say what concesssions Pyongyang was demanding.

However other US officials said the North Koreans had presented a lengthy list of demands. The demands include full normalization of ties with the United States, security guarantees and economic assistance that include oil and other energy considerations.

"They had quite a list of things," US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters. A senior State Department official said later that the list of demands was so extensive that it defied a "concise description."

"It basically listed everything they have ever asked for," the official told reporters on condition of anonymity, identifying oil and energy supplies as demands. Although the North Korean demands are being looked at, Boucher repeated long-standing US policy that Washington would not be blackmailed or otherwise threatened into buying Pyongyang off.

"We've made clear we're not going to pay for elimination of the nuclear weapons programs that never should have begun in the first place," he said. Powell acknowledged that North Korea had hinted it could prove it possessed nuclear weapons with some sort of display during the Beijing talks, but maintained that the North Koreans had not used the words "test" or "testing."

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