Pro-North Korea paper says Obama brings in "new phase"

SEOUL (Reuters) - The election of Barack Obama as U.S. president means the Korean peninsula is entering "a new phase," a pro-North Korea newspaper said on Friday, in the first indirect mention of the American leader by the communist state.

North Korea waited until late February in 2001 to comment on the election of President George W. Bush by warning that his hardline policy would cause serious problems for a defunct agreement aimed at suspending the North's nuclear programme.

North Korea is locked in long-running talks aimed at implementing a new deal with five regional powers to end its nuclear programing return for aid and diplomatic incentives.

"The situation surrounding the Korean peninsula is about to enter a new phase," the Choson Sinbo newspaper published in Japan said in a dispatch from Pyongyang. "A president who calls for 'change' has emerged in the United States."

The positive comments contrasted with the North's campaign against conservative President Lee Myung-bak of the South, who the North has called "despicable human scum" for his pledge to get tough with its neighbor.

"If the Obama administration takes the lesson of the previous government and comes to dialogue with a more forward-looking position, then the situation of 'communicating with the U.S. and shutting out the South' will only deepen," the newspaper said.

A North Korean diplomat is in New York and scheduled to meet U.S. nuclear envoys to hold discussions under the six-party process on disarming the North.

The United States took the communist state off its terrorism blacklist in October after the two countries agreed on a series of measures to verify Pyongyang's nuclear program.

The North has persistently stalled on implementing the September 2005 disarmament deal as it demanded the end of what it calls a hostile policy by Washington.

South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said on Friday Washington and Pyongyang were in agreement over verification and members of the six-party talks would soon meet to formalize the protocol which would move the process forward.

Choson Sinbo newspaper said the fact that renewed efforts were being made to get the nuclear issue back on track was another indication that a "new phase" was emerging.

(Reporting by Jack Kim; Editing by Bill Tarrant)