The `bold approach' provides a wide range of aid in exchange for a scrapped nuke program.

WASHINGTON--The United States is still willing to offer a generous assistance package that North Korea rejected two years ago, but time is running out on the ``bold approach'' offer to get Pyongyang to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.

Sources close to the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush recently acknowledged that Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly made the ``bold approach'' proposal during a visit to Pyongyang in October 2002.

But North Korean officials rejected the proposal because it called for the country to abandon all aspects of its nuclear program, the sources said.

While Bush and his top officials have often referred to this bold approach to North Korea, details of the proposal have not emerged until now.

If Pyongyang had agreed to eliminate its nuclear weapons program, the United States was willing to establish diplomatic relations, sign a peace treaty, provide infrastructure construction assistance and help the isolationist state return to the fold of the international community, the sources said.

One senior Bush administration official said while the proposal had not been scrapped, whether it would be formally offered again to North Korea would depend on Pyongyang. He added it would also depend on the final diplomatic lineup for Bush's second term.

With Condoleezza Rice expected to be the new secretary of state, the proposal will likely remain a U.S. option in dealing with North Korea. Rice is believed to have come up with the name ``bold approach'' when it was being put together by the National Security Council.

Under the proposal, North Korea would be expected to dismantle its nuclear weapons program, related materials as well as nuclear development facilities and transport those items outside of the country.

The bold approach also called on Pyongyang to enter into talks with Washington on other pressing issues, including a reduction of military forces on both sides of the demilitarized zone that separates the two Koreas. It also required that missiles, biological and chemical weapons as well as human rights issues be addressed.

In exchange for North Korean concessions, the United States was willing to review the 1994 Agreed Framework that promised to build two light-water reactors in North Korea.

Under the review, thermal power plants capable of generating the same volume of electricity would have replaced the light-water reactors.

In addition, the United States would have provided high-voltage power transmission lines and hydropower plant generation technology, assisted in building roads and bridges and pushed for North Korea to join the ranks of major international financial institutions, such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

The United States also said it would kick off negotiations to convert the U.S.-North Korea cease-fire agreement into a peace treaty and remove North Korea from its list of nations known to sponsor terrorism.

Humanitarian assistance in the form of food aid and the construction of hospitals and schools would have also been offered had Pyongyang agreed to the proposal.

Administration officials said the program was designed to promote reform and encourage North Korea to develop an open-door policy through improved relations with the United States.

The sources said that when Kelly presented the offer to his North Korean counterparts, he told them it was not designed to overthrow the regime of Kim Jong Il.

Nevertheless, First Vice Minister Kang Sok Ju rejected the proposal without even looking at it in depth, the sources said.(IHT/Asahi: November 27,2004)