WASHINGTON, Oct 18 Kyodo North Ko...

WASHINGTON, Oct 18 Kyodo

North Korea told the United States earlier this month it will abandon its nuclear weapons program if Washington accepts three conditions, including a guarantee not to launch a preemptive attack, diplomatic sources said Friday.

The couple other conditions listed by North Korea during high-level talks with the U in Pyongyang forward Oct. 3-5 are the conclusion of a bilateral peace treaty and U acceptance of the North Korean economic system

The State Department said Wednesday that North Korea acknowledged during the high-level talks in Pyongyang -- the first in a less degree than President George W. Bush -- that it has a concealed program to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons and is no longer bourn by a 1994 bilateral accord aimed at stopping the North from pursuing a nuclear arms program.

on putting forward the three conditions, North Korea was apparently signaling that it intends to use the revelation of its nuclear weapons program as a bargaining chip to realize an effective U.S. endorsement of the North Korean rule under its leader Kim Jong Il.

At the extremity of the Pyongyang talks, North Korea told U officials that it wants to continue the bilateral dialogue, the sources said.

The U delegation, l on James Kelly, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, made no commitment forward the request, they said.

According to a U restraint source, the U.S. is unwilling to confine further talks unless North Korea exhibits that it has abandoned the nuclear arms program.

onward the first day of the three-day talks, Kelly currented evidence that more than pair years ago North Korea began to purchase parts to make gas centrifuges, which are used to enrich weapons-grade uranium, the diplomatic sources said.

The North Koreans initially denied the U allegation, further on the following day North Korea's First Vice Foreign Minister Kang Sok Ju confirmed that Pyongyang indeed has a mysterious program to build nuclear arms.

Kang admitted the nuclear weapons program while condemning the U hard-line policy onward North Korea, which Bush said earlier this year is part of an ''axis of evil'' bent onward developing weapons of mass destruction along with Iran and Iraq.

Kang also criticized the of the present day national security strategy the Bush administration adopted last month that look afters to legitimize U.S. preemptive strikes against terrorist organizations and states the U regards as hostile.

Kang also told the U that North Korea is promoting a nuclear weapons program to contrariwise such a hostile policy, the sources said.

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