US envoy urges full declaration from N.Korea

JAPAN, Chief US nuclear envoy Christopher Hill called Tuesday on North Korea to provide a complete account of its weapons programmes, saying its partners in six-nation talks were expecting a full accounting.

The reclusive communist state missed a year-end deadline to disable its key nuclear facilities and give a full declaration of its other atomic programmes as part of an international aid-for-disarmament deal.

Hill, who was heading from Japan to South Korea on a tour that will also take him to China and Russia, the other countries in the talks, said there was international consensus that Pyongyang had to come forward.

"I think there is a complete agreement on what we need to see in terms of a complete declaration," he told reporters at Tokyo's Haneda airport before his flight to Seoul. Hill on Monday held talks with his Japanese counterpart, Kenichiro Sasae, and called for a "100 percent declaration" from North Korea.

The North is thought to have missed the deadline because of questions about the extent of its nuclear programmes.

Washington says it has evidence that Pyongyang has imported material for a suspected uranium enrichment programme along with plutonium-based activities.

The North has never admitted any uranium operation.

Pyongyang in turn has accused the United States of aggressive tactics, and warned it was slowing compliance with the six-nation deal and building up its "war deterrence."

In Seoul, Hill will meet with South Korea's president-elect Lee Myung-Bak, who has signalled a tougher line on the North than outgoing Roh Moo-Hyun.

Tokyo, Tuesday, AFP