Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 22, 1995                   TAG: 9504240049
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

NORTH KOREA REFUSES TO EXTEND NUCLEAR TALKS

The North Korean government will take ``relevant action'' based on his report, Kim Jong U said as he departed for Pyongyang and spurned an offer by Secretary of State Warren Christopher to upgrade the negotiations and shift them to Geneva.

Groping for a formula to avert a crisis, Christopher said the dispute over replacing North Korea's gas-graphite reactor could be settled. The United States insists on South Korean light-water models, which are far less likely to be used to produce weapons-grade plutonium.

He again urged North Korea not to reload its 5-megawatt experimental reactor that was stilled last year by Pyongyang after U.S. officials concluded it was producing plutonium for nuclear weapons.

Assistant Secretary of State Robert Gallucci, the chief architect of an agreement in October with North Korea to replace the reactor, said ``there should be a way to capture in language the role the Republic of Korea is to play.''

In the meantime, inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency will keep an eye on the reactor at North Korea's nuclear complex at Yongbyon.

Gallucci, at a news conference at the State Department, said they ``will know immediately if there is a move to break the freeze, for example by refueling the 5-megawatt reactor. So I don't think there's any question about whether we'll know about it.''

He said South Korea's cooperation in financing replacement reactors valued at $4.5 billion depends on using South Korean light-water reactors as models.

But Gallucci said other countries could participate as subcontractors. A central role for South Korea does not mean ``that no other company would be involved in subcontracting. We are not excluding German, French, American, Japanese or anybody else's companies from participating in the project,'' Gallucci said.

But in Berlin, chief North Korean negotiator U said the talks had collapsed and he was returning to North Korea. ``Our delegation is leaving Berlin today,'' he said.

The North Korean said there would be no high-level talks in Geneva, like the ones that helped ease tensions last year between the two countries.

``We think everything that could be discussed in high-level talks has already been discussed and settled,'' he said. ``The U.S. side is to blame for the rupture, for the breakdown and the rupture of the current talks because of the unreasonable and unrealistic attitudes.''

As for reactors from rival South Korea, the North Korean negotiator said ``the proposal put on our table does not have the safety features that North Korea is looking for.''

``We cannot reach any kind of agreement at this round of the talks, due to the unrealistic approach of the U.S. delegation,'' he said.

All along, North Korea had said Friday was the deadline for implementing the accord reached in October. Christopher and other U.S. officials said it was only a ``target date.''

Christopher consulted with Japanese and South Korean officials Thursday night and then made public his proposal for a resumption of negotiations, in Geneva and at a higher level. Gallucci would head the U.S. delegation.