Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced Friday in Seoul she was naming Stephen Bosworth to oversee Washington's North Korea policy -- a new high-level post designed to press Pyongyang on nuclear disarmament and human rights.

Bosworth takes on the role at a time of high tension. Britain's respected defense analysis firm Jane's said satellite imagery showed North Korea could be ready to fire an intermediate-range missile by month's end.

A six-nation disarmament pact is at a standstill, with the previous administration of George W. Bush failing despite last-minute diplomacy to reach a deal on how to verify North Korea was giving up its nuclear program.

"If you step back, more broadly there is not a wide range of policy options given the political realities on the ground," said L. Gordon Flake, a Korea expert who advised Obama during the campaign.

Flake, who said he was speaking in personal capacity, doubted that Obama -- who enjoys wide popularity at home and abroad -- would want to invest too much of his credibility in the slow-moving North Korea row.

"I'm not aware of anyone who thinks ... if we just invested a lot of capital we would come up with this great raging political success," said Flake, head of the Mansfield Foundation which focuses on US-Asia relations.

New special representative Bosworth -- a former US ambassador to South Korea and dean of Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy -- has called for an approach to North Korea broader than just denuclearization.

After a visit to Pyongyang last year, Bosworth and fellow scholar Morton Abramowitz wrote a piece in Newsweek magazine that called for efforts to tie North Korea to the global economy.

"It falls to the next administration, one hopes, to devise a strategy toward Pyongyang that addresses both the nuclear program and the long-term question of how to deal with the weak but dangerous nation," they wrote in May.

State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid said Friday that Bosworth will coordinate overall North Korea policy, while senior official Sung Kim will continue to lead day-to-day negotiations.

Duguid said no final decision had been taken on who would attend future rounds of the six-nation talks, which also include China, Japan, Russia and South Korea.

The previous chief US negotiator was Christopher Hill, who was seen as eager to reach a final deal and became legendary for his friendliness toward the media. He is reportedly in the running to be the next US ambassador to Iraq.

David Asher, a former State Department official who helped set up the six-way talks during the Bush administration, said it was time to take a hard look at the format.

He regretted that all rounds of the six-nation talks have taken place in China, accusing North Korea's main ally of bogging down the process to meet its own ends.

"For North Korea, the six-way talks have become the proverbial goose that lays the golden eggs," Asher said.

North Korea wants the six-nation talks to proceed "at a very slow pace with periodic stalling, provocation and re-engagement, while the ultimate goal of denuclearization is kept deliberately distant," he said.

But Asher said that however low the expectations, engaging the secretive regime could bear fruit.

"The Kim (Jong-Il) regime will not give up its nuclear program but that does not mean that all hope is lost. There is a great deal that can be done to lessen the tensions," he said.

earlier related report
NKorea rejects UN envoy's trip: report
North Korea has rejected a proposed trip by a United Nations envoy next month amid rising tensions over a possible missile test by Pyongyang, a news report said Sunday.

Yonhap news agency, quoting an unnamed US diplomatic source, said Lynn Pascoe, ths UN's undersecretary general for political affairs, had proposed a visit in early March.

"Saying that it is not an appropriate time, North Korea has virtually rejected the offer," the source was quoted as telling Yonhap.

The North's planned long-range Taepodong missile test might be one of the reasons for rejecting the visit, the source said.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, a former South Korean foreign minister, has sought to send an envoy to assess the situation on the peninsula, Yonhap said.

North Korea could be ready to test-fire an intermediate range ballistic missile by the end of the month, defence analysis group Jane's said Friday.

Experts at Jane's Defence Weekly said satellite imagery taken on Wednesday indicated that Pyongyang was preparing to either launch a prototype Taepodong-2 missile or a Paektusan-2 space launch vehicle.

Preparations included activation or installation of telemetry equipment and radars, the arrival of numerous trucks and support vehicles, a rise in activity at the engine test stand, and launch pad and umbilical tower maintenance.

The magazine also said that support facilities for the engine test stand were being expanded.

Tensions have risen since the North cancelled all peace accords with South Korea, including one recognising the Yellow Sea border as an interim frontier.

The area saw deadly naval clashes in 1999 and 2002.

Seoul's defence chief warned Friday that his troops would target North Korean launch sites if his navy ships came under missile attack in the Yellow Sea.

The North's military announced Thursday that it was "fully ready" for war with South Korea.

South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak has rolled back his predecessors' policy of largely unconditional aid and engagement with the North.

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