February 12, 2003	Wednesday	Zul Hijjah 10, 1423

MOSCOW, Feb 11: Russia on Tuesday announced plans to get direct talks going between Pyongyang and Washington in a bid to defuse the standoff over North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.

“The North Koreans have told us about their desire to hold a dialogue with the United States,” the Interfax news agency quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov as saying.

“The Americans told us the same thing. We need to figure out why, unfortunately, this is not happening while the crisis continues and — if not getting even worse — then at least staying at the same tense level.”

Mr Losyukov said Russia “in the near future will try to take a series of steps aimed at clearing up the situation and see what we can do for dialogue to resume between the two sides”.

He did not specify what specific steps Russia intended to take. Last month, Losyukov held what he then described as “constructive” six-hour talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il in Pyongyang and the Russian diplomat said he may travel there again.

“If it is expedient, then there may be more trips,” he said. “We need to make efforts to push the talks along. Unfortunately, we have been unable to get there yet.”

US NUKES: North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il is trying to force the United States to tolerate his acquisition and enlargement of a stockpile of nuclear weapons, CIA chief George Tenet said on Tuesday.

Mr Tenet’s comments to a congressional committee will bolster the view here that North Korea is not seeking nuclear arms merely as a bargaining chip to win concessions from the United States.

“Kim Jong-Il’s attempts this past year to parlay the North’s nuclear weapons programme into political leverage suggest he is trying to negotiate a fundamentally different relationship with Washington — one that implicitly tolerates the North’s nuclear weapons programme,” Tenet said.

“Although Kim presumably calculates the North’s aid, trade and investment climate will never improve in the face of US sanctions and perceived hostility, he is equally committed to retaining and enlarging his nuclear weapons stockpile.”—AFP