New round and old questions for N.Korea nuclear talks

SEOUL (Reuters) - Five regional powers will hold talks withNorth Korea from Thursday on ending its atomic weapons plansand verifying an account the secretive state gave in June ofits nuclear programmes, officials said on Tuesday.

The talks, the first in nine months, come after Washingtonresponded to the North's declaration of its nuclear assets bystarting to take it off a terrorism blacklist. But Washingtonalso called on Pyongyang to answer lingering questions onproliferation and uranium enrichment.

"We look forward to positive results from this heads ofdelegation meeting," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman QinGang said when making the announcement for the talks.

Hosted by China, they also include the two Koreas, Japan,Russia and the United States.

This round of talks is provisionally scheduled to last forthree days, Qin said.

South Korean envoy Kim Sook, who had released the date ofthe talks ahead of China's announcement, told reporters one keyissue will be setting a verification mechanism to check claimsNorth Korea made about its murky nuclear weapons programme.

Analysts said North Korea may sign off on an inspectionprogramme but will delay further disarmament steps for as longas possible to squeeze out concessions.

"North Korea has no reason to reveal everything it's got,"said Park Young-ho, an analyst at the South's Korea Institutefor National Unification.

"Nuclear armaments are not only North Korea's 'card' toplay strategically at the negotiating table, but they are alsoa tool for Kim Jong-il to stay in power."

Yonhap news agency reported that North Korean nuclear envoyKim Kye-gwan had arrived in Beijing on Tuesday.

In late June, the North presented a long-delayed account ofits nuclear weapons programme that contained information on itsplutonium production, but did little to address U.S. suspicionsof a secret uranium enrichment programme.

North Korea, which tested a nuclear device in October 2006,was required in a disarmament-for-aid deal to make thedeclaration and start taking apart its Soviet-era nuclear plantat Yongbyon by the end of 2007.

It had completed most of the disablement steps by the endof last year. On June 27, in a symbolic move to show itscommitment to the deal, the reclusive state invited in media towitness a controlled blast that brought down the cooling towerat its ageing nuclear reactor.

In return for these steps, the energy-starved North hasreceived heavy fuel oil aid. Once it is removed from the U.S.terrorism list, the communist state will see an end tosanctions that have mostly cut it off from internationalbanking.

The declaration, however, did not address the North'snuclear weaponry and facilities other than Yongbyon, which maycloud the next round of talks in Beijing.

"The U.S. and other players are expecting North Korea todeclare and disable other facilities," said Kim Sung-han, aKorea University international relations professor.

And there may even be problems with what it did declarebecause according to reports in Japanese media, the North saidit produced about 30 kgs (66 lbs) of plutonium while U.S.officials have said they think it is closer to 50 kgs.

(Additional reporting by Kim Junghyun in Seoul and ChrisBuckley in Beijing; Editing by Jerry Norton)