U.S. discusses compromise with North Korea-sources

By Teruaki Ueno

TOKYO (Reuters) - The United States and North Korea have been discussing a possible face-saving compromise in a standoff over Pyongyang's accounting of its nuclear programs, diplomatic sources said, as the two sides headed into talks in Singapore.

Under the compromise proposal, North Korea would acknowledge U.S. assertions that the secretive communist state had a clandestine program to enrich uranium for weapons and proliferated nuclear technology and material to Syria, diplomatic sources in Tokyo told Reuters.

"The compromise deal was floated when representatives from the United States and North Korea met in Geneva last month," one of the sources said.

Washington has said a major sticking point in talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear programs is the need for Pyongyang to deliver a declaration giving a complete account of its programs as called for in a February 2007 six-party nuclear deal. That account was due at the end of last year.

If the two sides accept the compromise proposal, it could come in a document separate from North Korea's "complete and correct declaration" of its nuclear ambitions, the source said.

Washington suspects North Korea of having a secret program to enrich uranium for weapons and proliferating nuclear technology, and wants those issues addressed in the declaration. North Korea has repeatedly denied the allegations.

North Korea has said it had already made the declaration and it described the U.S. suspicions as fiction.

Another diplomatic source said it was not clear whether North Korea would accept the compromise.

"The proposal is face-saving to both sides," he said. "It is particularly face-saving to North Korea because they don't have to directly admit that they had done something wrong."

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill is due to meet North Korea's Kim Kye-gwan in Singapore later on Tuesday.

The talks between Hill and Kim come at a time of heightened tension on the heavily armed Korean peninsula in recent days after the North's missile tests and threat to attack the South.

If the North makes the declaration, it stands to be removed from a U.S. terrorism blacklist and be better able to tap into finance that could boost its economy.

(Editing by Alex Richardson)