Some analysts consider the North's stronger voice as a move to win bigger concessions from U.S.-led allies, but many experts say the North's "unacceptable" demands are aimed at buying time to make additional nuclear weapons and cement its status as a nuclear-armed country.

The North's wish-list of demands was put forward by North Korea's chief delegate Kim Kye Gwan in his keynote speech at the opening session of the six-party talks in Beijing, which also involve the United States, South Korea, Japan, Russia and China.

The list includes lifting all international sanctions and helping in developing a nuclear power industry. Pyongyang also called for the United States to stop its "hostile" stance and stop targeting the offshore bank accounts of the North's leaders.

In addition, insisting it be treated as a full-fledged nuclear power following its Oct. 9 test, the North demanded the six-nation talks be transformed into negotiations over mutual arms reductions that would also deal the reduction of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

If the demands are not met, the North said, it would increase its nuclear arsenal, embarrassing South Korean negotiators who were hopeful that the hard-won dialogue momentum could make progress in resolving the nuclear crisis.

The North has also urged the United States to scrap its Proliferation Security Initiative aimed at stopping North Korean weapons traffic and withdraw American troops from South Korea, demands that eventually call for a review of the Bush administration's North Korea policy.

Nam Sung-wook, a North Korea specialist at Korea University in Seoul, said the North's strong demands reflect it would not give up nuclear weapons. "The North seems unwilling to resolve the nuclear issue under the current dialogue formula," he said.

Rather, the North seeks to use this week's talks to remove U.S.-led financial sanctions, Nam and other analysts say.

Indicating Pyongyang's purpose, it has dispatched a four-member team of financial specialists, headed by O Kwang Chol, president of the Foreign Trade Bank of Korea, Pyongyang's arm for foreign banking, to Bejing for bilateral talks on financial sanctions.

Upon arriving in Bejing Tuesday, O's team entered the U.S. embassy grounds to meet his negotiation counterpart Assistant Treasury Secretary Daniel Glaser.

The North Korean financial specialists are expected to call for lifting U.S. sanctions on a Macau-based bank, claiming the frozen funds are not related to any illegal activities.

North Korea had boycotted the six-party talks since November last year after the United States slapped restrictions on Banco Delta Asia accused of laundering money for North Korea.

Under the U.S. measure, the bank has frozen $24 million of North Korean holdings in some 50 accounts and cut off transactions with the communist country, which is believed to chock off Pyongyang's cash flow.

The North has long called for the United States to lift the measure on BDA in a show of trust before seeking progress in the nuclear talks, a demand rejected by Washington which said the financial issue is not relevant to the nuclear talks but a matter to be handled by law-enforcement authorities.

Many analysts say the North Korea-U.S. talks on financial sanctions would be crucial for any headway in this week's nuclear negotiations.

"The North's aim is to win the lifting of financial sanctions in this round of talks," said Ryu Ho-yol who teaches North Korean affairs at Korea University. "If there were some progress in the financial issue, the North would discuss the nuclear issue."

In Bejing, the North has refused to have any bilateral nuclear talks with the United States or South Korea before the opening of the financial talks, indicating Pyongyang has placed the top priority on the sanctions issue.

But Kim Tae-woo, a nuclear strategy analyst at the Korea Institute for Defense Analysis in Seoul, said the North seeks to use the financial issue and other tough agenda items to buy time to increase its nuclear arsenal to cope with outside threats.

"North Korea is expected to use the six-way talks to cement its status as a nuclear-armed country and raise its stakes in the nuclear standoff with the United States," he said.

Kim and other analysts say the North is expected to apply "salami tactics" -- slicing the agenda and putting conditions for moving from one item to another, to stall negotiations and buy time.

Related Links