The United States and China said today North Korea had offered to scrap its nuclear weapons and missile programs but Washington said the reclusive communist state demanded big concessions in return.
Western diplomats who received a rare briefing by a Chinese Foreign Ministry official in Beijing said North Korea had offered to end its nuclear program and had also offered to suspend ballistic missile tests and stop missile exports.
"They did put forward a plan that would ultimately deal with their nuclear capability and their missile activities but they of course expect something considerable in return," US Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell told reporters in Washington when asked about the Beijing briefing. "We are studying that plan."
Neither Mr Powell nor the diplomats in China spelled out what Pyongyang sought in return for its offer but a senior US official said it included economic exchanges, oil, energy and normal relations with the United States.
"It basically listed everything they have ever asked for," said the US official. The Western diplomats quoted the Chinese official as saying North Korea had warned of "extraordinary measures" if the United States played its "usual tricks".
The offers were made during three-way talks in Beijing last week with the United States and China at which US sources last week said North Korea admitted that it already had nuclear weapons.
However the Chinese official, the Foreign Ministry's top North Korea expert, painted a different picture of the talks.
One EU diplomat quoted the official as saying North Korean negotiators had told US officials led by Assistant Secretary of State Mr James Kelly that nuclear inspectors would be allowed into their country if Washington dropped its hostile attitude.
He was also quoted as saying that North Korea had retreated from its previous insistence on bilateral talks with the United States and told Kelly it had no preference for any particular format for negotiations.