North Korea shifted significantly toward US calls for multilateral talks on its suspected nuclear arms plans and Washington voiced interest, saying it would follow up through diplomatic channels.
The North Korean comments on Saturday could mark a breakthrough in the nuclear standoff just days after US-led forces removed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from power in a war the South Korean president said had "petrified" the North.
"If the US is ready to make a bold switchover in its Korea policy for a settlement of the nuclear issue, the DPRK will not stick to any particular dialogue format," the North's KCNA news agency quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying.
Until now, North Korea -- its official name is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) -- has insisted on bilateral talks.
Washington, which lumps North Korea in an "axis of evil" with Iraq and Iran for seeking weapons of mass destruction, wants talks that also include regional players South Korea, Japan, Russia and China.
"We noted the statement with interest," US State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said on Saturday, adding: "We expect to follow up through appropriate diplomatic channels."
The US and North Korea do not have formal diplomatic relations, but exchange messages through diplomatic channels in New York. The US can also work through intermediaries such as Russia and China.
The North's spokesman did not specify what would constitute a "bold switchover" but the impoverished, energy-starved North has demanded security guarantees and aid in the past.
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun reiterated yesterday that he would make every effort to solve North Korea's nuclear crisis in a peaceful manner.
"I am confident we can resolve the nuclear issue peacefully through dialogue and diplomatic channels," he told an anniversary ceremony for establishing Korea's interim government in China during Japanese colonial rule in the early 1900s.
Kim Jung-roh, deputy spokesman at the South Korean Unification Ministry, said by telephone that Seoul had expected North Korea to shift its position gradually.
"Also, as the Iraq war is coming to an end faster than expected, North Korea has less options to take," he said.
Roh told the Washington Post in an interview published on Friday the US-led Iraq war had had a profound impact on North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and other North Korean officials.
"Especially watching the recent Iraqi war, I'm sure they are very much terrified ... petrified by the Iraqi war," the Post quoted him as saying.
North Korea has said it will be the next US target after Iraq, something Washington denies. It says it wants a diplomatic solution to the nuclear crisis.
Underscoring its fears, the North lashed out at Washington yesterday, accusing it of threatening world peace and security and said the danger of a war on the Korean Peninsula was becoming real.
"The US is now keen to ignite another Korean War after concluding the Iraqi war," said a commentary in the North's Communist Party newspaper Rodong Sinmun, calling Washington a "ferocious harasser."
The crisis erupted last October when Washington said Pyongyang had admitted having a covert nuclear weapons program, although the North denied making such an admission.
Analysts said the fall of Saddam Hussein showed North Korea's leadership the US would not reward bad behavior, and led the North to seek binding the US to some sort of an agreement with Pyongyang.
"I think it's a very good lesson in dealing with North Korea; peaceful means do not work with a country like North Korea," said Lee Jung-hoon, a professor of Yonsei University's Graduate School of International Studies.
Last Wednesday, the day Saddam's rule ended in Baghdad, the UN Security Council met to discuss the North's nuclear stance but did not issue a statement urging Pyongyang to fall into line, because of opposition from China and Russia.
The North Korean spokesman said Pyongyang demanded direct talks to gauge whether the US had the political will to give up "its hostile policy" toward the North.
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