BEIJING, Sept 23: North Korea is making plans to unload fuel rods from a nuclear reactor to make plutonium for weapons, seeking to pressure Washington into direct talks, a visiting US scholar said on Saturday.

Selig Harrison, back from a visit to North Korea, told a Beijing news conference he had met Kim Kye-gwan, Pyongyang’s top negotiator at stalled six-party talks, on its nuclear ambitions.

“He did make clear that the purpose of unloading the fuel was to obtain more plutonium for nuclear weapons,” Mr Harrison said, noting the material could make ‘enough plutonium for three to six nuclear weapons’.

The US State Department warned North Korea against provocative actions and urged it to return to the talks.

“Our position remains the same. They need to return to six-party talks and refrain from provocative actions which serve only to isolate them further from the international community,” spokesman Sean McCormack said.

Selig Harrison, director of the Asia Program at the Centre For International Policy in Washington, said North Korea planned to unload the rods from its Yongbyon reactor ‘beginning during this fall, not later than the end of the year’ — over half a year earlier than the reactor’s fuel cycle technically requires.

“They are speeding it up because they want to use Yongbyon to get bilateral negotiations with the United States to resolve the stalemate over the six-party talks,” Mr Harrison said.

“It underlines the fact that North Korea is enhancing its ability to develop nuclear weapons.”

The six-party talks, which include China, South Korea, Russia and Japan, have been in limbo since November. North Korea refuses to return to the table while Washington curbs Pyongyang’s international financial activities.

Mr Harrison said he had spent six hours talking with Mr Kim, the negotiator, during the Sept 19-23 visit. He quoted Mr Kim as saying if Washington agreed to face-to-face talks, ‘both sides could put whatever they’ve got on their minds on the table’.

Mr Kim told Mr Harrison that North Korea wanted evidence that the US would not pursue ‘regime change’ to oust Pyongyang’s hardline Communist government.

“I’m optimistic that the Bush Administration will climb down in the near future,” Mr Kim said, according to Mr Harrison.

North Korean officials hinted they may agree to suspend missile tests, freeze the nuclear programme and not sell any nuclear weapons or fissile materials abroad, if the United States offered concessions, Mr Harrison said.—Reuters