US President George W Bush has prodded North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in a letter to meet a December 31 deadline for declaring all of his country's nuclear activities, the White House said Thursday, according to dpa. Bush also wrote to leaders of other countries in six-nation talks aimed at dismantling the reclusive communist country's nuclear programme, the White House said. The talks involve North and South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia. North Korea has promised to disable the Yongbyon nuclear complex and declare all of its nuclear activities by the end of the year. In his letters, Bush "stressed the need for North Korea to come forward with a full and complete declaration of their nuclear programme" by that date, as foreseen in a September 2005 agreement, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said. She gave no details, but said the letter to Kim likely was "slightly different" from the others because the pressure was on North Korea to make its declaration. North Korea said US envoy Christopher Hill gave Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun the letter for Kim this week during his latest visit to North Korea. Hill said Wednesday that North Korea "is pretty close to providing a declaration," but there are "definitely some differences." He declined to elaborate. South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min Soon said earlier Thursday that North Korea might not meet a deadline to disclose its nuclear facilities, activities and materials by the end of the year. "Originally, we had set the end of the year as an initial deadline, but we will need to be a little more flexible," Song was quoted as saying by South Korea's Yonhap News Agency. "Currently, this nuclear issue sits at a very critical juncture of stably moving ahead or being crippled." The diplomat said in an address to business leaders that North Korea's work on disabling its main nuclear facility, which was also to be completed by year's end, was preceding as planned but the declaration of its nuclear programme "is not moving forward." Upon arriving Wednesday night in Beijing, Hill said there were "definitely some differences" over the nuclear declaration without giving details. "We want to make it very clear that the North Korean declaration, even if it is a first draft, be complete and correct, that there be no surprises," Hill said after his rare three-day visit to North Korea, where he inspected the disablement work at Yongbyon, where North Korea has produced weapons-grade nuclear material. Disablement and the declaration are the second part of a three- phase pledge made by North Korea in February to dismantle its nuclear programme in return for energy and economic aid and movement toward normalizing diplomatic relations with Washington and Tokyo. The agreement was reached in the six-country talks. A new round of was planned, but no date has been announced.
