U.S. diplomats in Beijing to meet Chinese officials over Koreas

<br>BEIJING (AP) _ Launching a diplomatic scramble after North Korea's admission of a secret nuclear weapons program, two high-level American officials met Friday with Chinese officials to discuss

Friday, October 18th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

BEIJING (AP) _ Launching a diplomatic scramble after North Korea's admission of a secret nuclear weapons program, two high-level American officials met Friday with Chinese officials to discuss the situation in the insular communist nation, the U.S. Embassy said.

Undersecretary of State John Bolton and Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian Affairs James Kelly left a Beijing hotel Friday morning for what American officials said was a full slate of meetings. Neither spoke to reporters outside the hotel.

``A number of issues are on the agenda, including North Korea,'' a U.S. Embassy spokeswoman said, reading from a statement. She would not give details about any meetings.

In Washington on Thursday, reporters were told the Chinese were stunned upon learning that North Korea acknowledged to U.S. officials that it was pursuing a nuclear weapons program.

Bolton will travel to Russia, Britain and France after leaving China, the embassy said. Kelly will travel to Seoul during the weekend and Tokyo early next week ``to confer further with our Asian allies,'' the spokeswoman said.

A top South Korean negotiator planned to travel Saturday to the communist country, with Seoul anxious to gauge whether North Korea wants dialogue or confrontation over its nuclear weapons program.

Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun was to travel to Pyongyang, North Korea's capital, for talks scheduled well before the revelation that North Korea admitted developing nuclear bombs. Jeong's original plan was to promote projects to bring peace to the divided Korean peninsula, but those measures now are in jeopardy.

South Korea says dialogue is the best way to deal with concerns about North Korea, including the nuclear issue. But its engagement policy is under severe strain because of a perception the North repeatedly has duped its neighbor over the years.

``It's difficult to conclude whether the North Korean nuclear program is on the drawing board, or in the stage of building facilities, or in the stage of developing weapons,'' Jeong, the unification minister, told South Korea's KBS radio.

North Korea was silent Friday about its program and the international uproar it triggered, but said it was committed to a key project aimed at reconciling the two Koreas: the re-linking of a cross-border railway.

The North's state-run news agency, KCNA, said the project was ``greatly helpful'' to peacemaking efforts in the Asia-Pacific region as well as the expansion of economic links in the region.

Kelly led the U.S. delegation to Pyongyang Oct. 3-5 that confronted North Korean officials with information that the North was developing nuclear weapons in violation of a 1994 agreement.

The North Koreans initially denied the allegation, but then admitted it the following day, U.S. officials said. President Bush denounced North Korea earlier this year as part of an ``axis of evil,'' saying it sponsored terrorism.

China is North Korea's neighbor and final remaining major communist ally, although Beijing's push toward a more open economy in recent years has illustrated the cultural and economic divides between the two countries.

The U.S. Embassy spokeswoman said Bolton and Kelly also were discussing two upcoming meetings _ President Jiang Zemin's trip to visit President Bush in Texas next week, and Jiang's appearance at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum's meeting in Los Cabos, Mexico, later this month.