By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: February 6, 2008 Filed at 12:53 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The chief U.S. envoy at North Korean nuclear talks urged leader Kim Jong Il to hand over a promised list of his country's nuclear efforts, saying Wednesday that nuclear negotiators are working to make sure ''Pyongyang lives up to its word.''
Christopher Hill told lawmakers that six-nation disarmament talks are at a ''critical, challenging'' point, noting ''there is some sense of urgency.''
The United States says the North has balked at providing a ''complete and correct'' disclosure of nuclear programs to eventually be dismantled; Washington has refused to take the North off a U.S. terrorism blacklist, a coveted goal of Pyongyang, until negotiators have the list.
''Let me be clear,'' Hill said at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. '''Complete and correct' means complete and correct. This declaration must include all nuclear weapons, programs, materials and facilities, including clarification of any proliferation activities.''
His comments came a day after the director of U.S. intelligence, Mike McConnell, questioned North Korea's commitment to the stalled talks. McConnell also said the U.S. intelligence community believes North Korea continues to work on a secret uranium enrichment program and to sell its weapons around the world.
Conservatives have recently expressed worry that President Bush, seeking a foreign policy success before he leaves office in January, is ignoring North Korean abuse.
North Korea has begun disabling its main nuclear facilities under an agreement with the other countries at the international arms talks: China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the U.S. Most of the tasks of disabling those facilities have been completed, Hill said, with American experts working to ensure the plutonium-making facility would require at least a year to become operational again.
But the talks have faced an impasse since the North missed a Dec. 31 deadline on the declaration.
North Korea accuses the United States of failing to meet its commitments and claims it gave the U.S. a nuclear list in November. Washington says Pyongyang never produced a complete list.
The North's declaration, Hill said, must also address its alleged uranium enrichment program. The U.S. accused North Korea in 2002 of seeking to secretly enrich uranium in violation of an earlier disarmament deal, sparking the latest nuclear standoff.
North Korea has insisted it does not have an active uranium program, but Hill has said Pyongyang officials have promised they would address the issue to Washington's satisfaction.
While the United States cannot accept an incomplete declaration, Hill testified, there is reason to believe that progress can still be made.
Still, he said, the U.S. is ''very concerned about nuclear proliferation'' and noted that the North has promised not to transfer nuclear materials to other countries. ''We intend to hold North Korea to its word,'' he said.
U.S. lawmakers have expressed worry that North Korea may have helped Syria pursue a nuclear weapons program. Such cooperation would raise the specter of a country that conducted a nuclear test in 2006 -- North Korea -- providing atomic assistance to Syria, a nation Washington considers hostile and a sponsor of terrorism.
Syria has repeatedly denied that it is building a nuclear facility. North Korea denies accusations it spreads its nuclear expertise beyond its borders. Hill refused to publicly discuss specifics of the allegations.
A lawmaker at the hearing, Republican Sen. Dick Lugar, said that a U.S. program for dismantling Cold War-era weapons of mass destruction could be applied to North Korea. He said officials in Pyongyang have expressed interest in getting information on the program, which Lugar co-founded.
