SEOUL, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- Japan, South Korea and the United States reportedly agreed Monday to discuss North Korea's proposal freezing its nuclear program.
The Kyodo news agency said North Korea's proposal comes just before the second round of six-party talks that are scheduled Wednesday through Friday in Beijing.
During Monday's preparatory trilateral meeting, South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Le Soo Hyuck said Seoul also plans to offer energy aid to North Korea if Pyongyang's nuclear freeze proposal marks the first stage toward dismantling its nuclear weapons program.
Parties to the talks are North and South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.
U.S. officials are seeking the total dismantlement of North Korea's alleged plutonium and uranium program. But North Korea has always denied, in public at least, having a uranium project.
North Korea has agreed before to halt activities at its plutonium generator in Yongbyon, 50 miles north of the capital, Pyongyang.
But the 1994 deal with the United States broke down in late 2002, and since then North Korea has claimed to have finished reprocessing 8,000 spent fuel rods stored at Yongbyon -- enough to help it build as many as six more nuclear weapons.
