SEOUL, Oct 5: US special envoy James Kelly indicated on Saturday he had delivered to North Korean leaders a set of tough conditions for improved ties with the United States in frank and useful talks in Pyongyang.

Kelly, on his return from a landmark mission to North Korea, said he had brought up a wide range of problems that have put relations in deep freeze for two years.

Kelly said he offered the North the reward of better relations in return for progress on key issues. Pyongyang, desperate to combat economic collapse, is hoping reconciliation with Washington will lead to economic aid.

He said he had “explained how comprehensive efforts by North Korea to address our concerns could lead to improvement of US-DPRK (North Korea) relations.”

US fears about North Korea’s development of missiles and weapons of mass destruction have frozen ties with the reclusive Stalinist regime since President George W, Bush took office in January 2001.

No decision had been made for further negotiations, he said, but he added significantly that both sides “remain committed to addressing our concerns through dialogue.”

“I felt that our exchanges in Pyongyang were frank as befits the seriousness of our differences and they were useful too,” Kelly said in a statement he read to journalists here.

Kelly’s three-day visit from Thursday represented the highest level of sustained talks between Pyongyang and Washington since former secretary of state Madeleine Albright visited Pyongyang two years ago during the waning months of president Bill Clinton’s second term.

President Bush reversed reconciliation efforts with the North when he took office, and earlier this year placed North Korea on the same level as Iraq and Iran as part of an “axis of evil.”

Recent conciliatory steps by the Stalinist North have opened the way for the resumption of talks.

Pyongyang introduced market-opening measures in July and pushed for a series of agreements with the South in August, most notably on re-establishing road and rail links on the divided peninsula.

South Korea President Kim Dae-Jung has staked his political reputation on reconciliation with North Korea and has pushed hard for US re-engagement.

He has also encouraged a Japanese drive for normalization with the North, which resulted in last month’s visit to North Korea by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

Critics of Kim’s so-called “sunshine policy” charge that Pyongyang is simply seeking foreign money to keep its bankrupt regime afloat.

Kelly is reputedly among the skeptics, and told a committee of the US Congress earlier this year that “sunshine cannot cultivate a dry field.”

He also warmed that without clear evidence of change from Pyongyang, locked in a Cold War embrace with the South for five decade, engagement is doomed.

South Korean officials were briefed on his return earlier on Saturday. Kelly met Foreign Minister Choi Sung-Hong, top presidential advisor on North Korea Lim Dong-won, and Yim Sung-joon, presidential aide on foreign affairs.

Observers point to one sign that the mission may achieve progress on US worries over the North’s nuclear weapons’ programme, proliferation and human rights issues.

Kelly said he had met for substantive talks with Kim Yong-Nam, the North’s number two after supreme leader Kim Jong-Il, suggesting that the North is placing considerable importance on hearing out US concerns.

A former foreign minister, Kim heads the standing committee of the Supreme People’s Assembly, and is number two in the ruling politburo.

On Sunday, the special envoy will fly from Seoul to Tokyo to brief Japanese officials, although Kyodo news agency reports that he will leave for Washington earlier than planned and has cancelled sessions with Defence Agency chief Shigeru Ishiba and Deputy Foreign Minister Toshiyuki Takano.

Next week, Washington will review his mission before deciding on its next move, Kelly said.—AFP