The United States on Thursday suspended midlevel talks with North Korea after Pyongyang made no commitment to begin international inspections of its nuclear facilities.
Thomas Hubbard, a U.S. deputy assistant secretary of State, said he was open to talks with North Korea before next week, when the Board of Governors of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency meets again.
The IAEA has urged North Korea to fix a firm day by Monday for inspecting its facilities. If Pyongyang does not comply, the agency has little choice but to throw the issue to the U.N. Security Council, which could impose sanctions.
Inspection of the seven declared North Korean sites would allow experts to conduct tests, reload monitoring cameras and change seals to verify that no nuclear material had been secretly diverted. But this would not include access to two undeclared sites that experts say are crucial to full knowledge of North Korea's nuclear capabilities.
Meanwhile, bucking the conventional view regarding North Korea's nuclear threat, former high-ranking State Department and Pentagon officials said Pyongyang's communist regime does not yet have atomic bombs. In a report by the independent United States Institute of Peace, they said North Korea's conventional military, believed to include chemical and biological weapons, is much more of an immediate threat. - Juan J. Walte
