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SEOUL: The United States is close to removing North Korea from its terrorism blacklist in the hope of saving a crumbling nuclear disarmament deal, according to reports Friday.
Pyongyang, meanwhile, ramped up the pressure by barring UN inspectors from its nuclear complex and warning Seoul of possible naval clashes along their disputed sea border.
The reports said Washington, which sent its chief negotiator Christopher Hill to Pyongyang last week, is nearing agreement with the hardline communist state on inspection procedures for its nuclear plants.
The United States insists it must have agreement on verification before it can delist North Korea - which is preparing to restart its Yongbyon nuclear complex in protest at the delay.
South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper said both sides have now practically reached an agreement that the North will resume disabling Yongbyon in return for the US delisting.
"The North's resuming the disabling and the US delisting may come as early as this month," it quoted a Seoul government official as saying.
"Both the US and the North made some concessions. But all the key aspects of verification are included."
Dong-A Ilbo said there were still differences on verification but that the United States would go ahead with delisting, possibly as early as Friday, and continue with negotiations.
Japan's Kyodo News agency said the delisting would come by the end of this month. It said Washington has agreed that verification will at present cover only the admitted plutonium bomb-making programme, and not a suspected secret enriched uranium programme.
The US Fox News Network quoted some officials as saying an announcement by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice could come Friday US time, while others said a decision had not yet been taken.
White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe told AFP no decision had been made yet. "We will have a verification protocol before we de-list," he added.
Pyongyang accepted a landmark aid-for-disarmament deal in February 2007 - just four months after staging its first nuclear weapons test - hammered out by the United States, China, Russia, Japan and the two Koreas.
It closed down Yongbyon in July last year, began disabling it in November, and in June handed over a declaration of its nuclear activities.
But the North is angry the United States still has not removed it from the terrorism blacklist, thus blocking some aid, and says that it will reactivate Yongbyon in response.
On Thursday, the UN watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency said North Korea had barred its inspectors from all of its Yongbyon plants after earlier excluding them from the plutonium reprocessing operation.
The reprocessing plant can produce weapons-grade plutonium from spent fuel rods.
Pyongyang's tough stance comes amid reports that its reclusive leader Kim Jong-Il suffered a stroke from which he is recovering, although it is unclear if the developments are connected.
The North was Friday marking the anniversary of its ruling communist party but it was not known whether Kim, 66, would show up in public.
Tension has also risen with South Korea, the North's navy Thursday accusing its Seoul counterpart of encroaching into northern waters.
"The situation... has become so tense that a naval clash may break out due to such military provocations as the ceaseless infiltration of warships deep into the (North's) territorial waters," it said.
Earlier this week the North test-fired short-range missiles in the Yellow Sea, and South Korean media reports say it is readying 10 more missiles for a possible multiple test, in what analysts see as an attempt to strengthen its nuclear bargaining hand.
The US State Department urged Pyongyang "to avoid any steps that increase tension on the peninsula." It voiced regret at the exclusion of UN inspectors from the Yongbyon plants but said the situation "is reversible."
- AFP/yb
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