(LEAD) S. Korean envoy fetches no immediate breakthrough from N. Korea

(ATTN: UPDATES throughout with details)
By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, Jan. 20 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's deputy chief nuclear envoy said Tuesday
his rare discussions with North Korean officials in Pyongyang were confined to
technical aspects and that he was limited in whom he could meet, indicating there
was no immediate breakthrough in the stalled six-way disarmament talks and frosty
inter-Korean relations.
Hwang Joon-kook said he was not allowed to visit the North's foreign ministry or
meet its chief nuclear negotiator, Kim Kye-gwan. He had planned to deliver
Seoul's position on the nuclear talks and inter-Korean ties if he had a chance
to meet higher-ranking North Korean officials.
"North Korea asked us to focus on the issue of unused fuel rods," Hwang, head of
the South Korean foreign ministry's North Korean nuclear issue bureau, told
reporters.
He led a team of South Korean officials and civilian nuclear experts on a
fact-finding mission to decide whether to buy the fresh rods. Seoul said earlier
it would consider buying the rods if they could be used at its civilian nuclear
power plants.
Hwang returned to Seoul Tuesday via Beijing after a five-day stay in the North as
the two Koreas' border remains tightly sealed.
His trip to North Korea drew keen media attention as it was the highest-level
visit to the communist neighbor by a South Korean official since President Lee
Myung-bak took office with a tougher stance on Pyongyang.
"We looked around the nuclear facilities in Yongbyon that are being disabled,"
Hwang said, adding that his team confirmed that about 14,800 unused fuel rods,
which are equivalent to 100 tons of uranium, are stored at the Yongbyon complex.
The materials are reportedly worth over US$10 million.
Removing the fuel rods is one of the few remaining steps that Pyongyang has to
take to disable the Yongbyon complex under a 2007 aid-for-denuclearization deal
with South Korea, the United States, China, Russia and Japan.
North Korea apparently wants South Korea to purchase the roughly 15-year-old rods.
"The North Korean side was very cooperative on related consultations," he said.
Hwang said he was briefed in detail on Pyongyang's disablement and its stance on
denuclearization by Hyon Hak-bong, deputy chief of the U.S. affairs bureau at the
North's foreign ministry.
"I detected no big difference from North Korea's existing position," he said.
Hwang's visit coincided with a series of acrimonious statements from the North
over the weekend.
The North's military on Saturday declared an "all-out confrontational posture"
against South Korea, citing the Lee Myung-bak administration's "hostile" policy.
Separately, its foreign ministry said its denuclearization is unrelated to its
pursuit of normalizing ties with Washington, in an apparent message to the
incoming Obama administration.
A South Korean government official, separately speaking to reporters on condition
of anonymity, said Hwang saw related media reports on television at his hotel in
Pyongyang.
"It is hard to answer, for now, whether we will be able to purchase the rods," he
said. "An internal review is needed, and we have to share the results of this
trip with the other related nations and consult with them."
lcd@yna.co.kr
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