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Bush brushes off `rumors' of easy deal for N Korea

US President George W. Bush disputed suggestions on Saturday that he was scaling back demands on North Korea over its nuclear program and said he would not accept a deal that goes against the region’s interests.

Bush said that despite “rumors” concerning the negotiations, the US and its allies were still waiting to see the outcome of Pyongyang’s overdue disclosures on its nuclear activities.

“Obviously I am not going to accept a deal that doesn’t advance the interests of the region,” Bush said in a press conference with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak on the second day of their summit.

“We’re going to make a judgment as to whether North Korea has met its obligations to account for its nuclear program and activities as well as meet its obligations to disable its reactor,” Bush said.

“They have made some promises and we’ll make a judgment as to whether or not they’ve met those promises,” he said. “Then we’ll make a judgment of our own ... about our own obligations.”

But the South Korean leader said any softening of Pyongyang’s obligations under a six-country deal to fully declare its nuclear program could lead to “a lot more serious problems.”

“I believe if North Korea’s declaration is not satisfactory or if the verification is not satisfactory, we could probably have a temporary achievement, but in the long term that will cause a lot more serious problems,” Lee said.

Lee said everyone in the six-party talks must agree to the declaration.

US officials said on Thursday that Washington was adjusting its demands on North Korea in a bid to break a diplomatic stalemate on ending its nuclear arms drive.

Senior US National Security Council official Dennis Wilder said North Korea was not “off the hook” on fully declaring its atomic programs, but that proliferation issues would be “handled in a different manner.”

The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, hinted that US sanctions against North Korea could be removed even before its nuclear programs or proliferation activities were verified independently.

The statements triggered a backlash from US critics who suggested that the US was selling out in the negotiations in order to nail down a deal before Bush leaves office next January.

Bush played down the idea of a US compromise, allowing that Pyongyang could be “trying to stall” and insisting that “if there’s ever going to be a breakthrough, it’ll be through the six-party talks.”

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