North Korea misses deadline for nuclear declaration

By Paul Eckert

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea missed a year-end deadline to give a full account of its nuclear weapons under a disarmament-for-aid deal struck with regional powers and the United States.

"I think we had all hoped that North Korea would meet the December 31 deadline," said White House spokesman Scott Stanzel, just hours after midnight North Korean time (10 a.m. EST) had passed.

"We think it's possible for the North Koreans to provide a full and complete declaration and we hope they will do that as soon as possible," he said in Crawford, Texas, where President George W. Bush was vacationing on his ranch.

North Korea, which tested a nuclear weapon in October 2006, gave no explanation for missing the deadline, which had been agreed in February in talks between United States, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea.

The United States and allies South Korea and Japan issued coordinated statements on Sunday lamenting Pyongyang's failure to deliver the expected declaration of its atomic activities in exchange for aid.

But the United States seemed to temper its disappointment.

"The important thing is not whether we have the declaration by today," said State Department spokesman Tom Casey. "The important thing is we get a declaration that meets the requirement of the agreement, which means it needs to be full and complete."

In Tokyo, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official urged Pyongyang "to provide a complete and correct declaration of all its nuclear programs as quickly as possible."