North Korea Invites U.S. Nuclear Envoy

U.S. Assistant Secretary of States Christopher Hill, seen there in this April 13, 2006, file photo, has been invited by North Korea to visit the nation so it can prove to the United States it's abiding by a 2005 agreement in which it pledged to abandon its nuclear weapons program. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File) (Ahn Young-joon - AP)

In October 2000, then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visited North Korea _ the highest-level American official ever to travel to the country. The two nations don't have formal diplomatic relations.

The United States had previously been engaged in direct talks with North Korea that led to a 1994 agreement on halting the North's nuclear development in exchange for getting two nuclear reactors and other aid. But U.S. officials say the North admitted in late 2002 to a new secret uranium enrichment program, prompting Washington to abandon the earlier deal.

The New York-based reactor project from the earlier nuclear deal was formally shut down Wednesday by the U.S., South Korea, Japan and European Union. In Seoul, the South Korean Unification Ministry, which is in charge of dealings with the North, lamented the end of the project to build the light-water reactors _ which are believed to be difficult to divert to the production of weapons-grade uranium.

"The government thinks it is regrettable that the light-water reactor project was terminated," the ministry said in a statement.

But Japan blamed North Korea, saying it violated the spirit of the program long ago.

"I think we can say the significance of the project was already lost," Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said at a regular news conference in Tokyo.

Since the outbreak of the latest nuclear crisis, the U.S. has pursued diplomacy with the North through nuclear talks hosted by China that also include Japan, Russia and South Korea.

On Thursday, Pyongyang also repeated its call for a relaxation of U.S. financial restrictions as a condition for the country's return to those stalled arms talks.

Washington's "escalated hostile policy and increasing pressure upon the DPRK would only compel it to take the strongest measures to protect its right to existence and sovereignty," the North said. "We will certainly force the U.S. to compensate for the financial loss caused to the DPRK."

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Associated Press reporter Anne Gearan in Vienna contributed to this report.