U.S. to hold nuclear talks in Pyongyang

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. team will have talks in Pyongyang next Tuesday and Wednesday on how to verify any declaration North Korea may make about its nuclear programs, the U.S. State Department said on Friday.

The team will include U.S. diplomat Sung Kim and nuclear experts from other agencies, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.

North Korea's failure to issue the declaration when it was due on December 31 has bogged down a 2005 multilateral deal under which the poor, communist state committed eventually to abandon all nuclear weapons and programs.

The so-called six-party agreement was hammered out among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.

The declaration has been held up partly because of Pyongyang's reluctance to discuss any transfer of nuclear technology to other countries, notably Syria, as well as to account for its suspected pursuit of uranium enrichment.

Uranium enrichment could provide North Korea with a second way to produce fissile material for nuclear weapons in addition to its plutonium-based program, which it used to test an atomic device in October 2006.

Last week sources familiar with the matter said the declaration may be split into one part that will describe its plutonium program and a second part that will address the uranium enrichment and proliferation issues.

Under a face-saving formula being discussed, the sources said the United States would put forward its concerns about uranium enrichment and nuclear proliferation and North Korea would then "acknowledge the U.S. concerns."

They said Pyongyang would produce its declaration at about the same time as the United States began taking steps to remove sanctions on Pyongyang stemming from its inclusion on the U.S. state sponsors of terrorism list and under the Trading with the Enemy Act.