SYDNEY - U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said on Tuesday he believed North Korea would stop its uranium enrichment programme by the end of the year.
Were the reclusive state to take such a step it would go beyond an agreement struck with regional powers to disable its nuclear facilities and reveal its atomic programmes.
Speaking to the Sydney Institute, Hill said that if North Korea agreed to abandon its last 50 kg of plutonium -- already produced at its Yongbyon reactor, which is to be dismantled -- then peace talks on the divided Korean peninsula could start.
But he said shutting down and dismantling nuclear facilities was not the end of the road: Pyongyang must also dispose of any nuclear fuel to ensure facilities cannot be restarted.
"We have been talking to the North Koreans about making sure there is no fuel to put back in the reactor," Hill said in off-the-cuff remarks to the Sydney Institute.
"We have had a lot of discussions with the North Koreans ... I think that by the end of the year we have good reason to believe that whatever uranium enrichment programme they have going, they will not have going by the end of the year."
In 2002, the United States accused the North of seeking to master enrichment as an alternative source of fissile material for nuclear arms. The North has denied pursuing enrichment.
Pyongyang this month agreed to disable the three main nuclear facilities at its Yongbyon site and reveal what atomic programmes it has by the end of the year in return for aid, a deal regional powers hope will eventually lead to complete nuclear disarmament.
South Korea's envoy to the negotiations told Reuters last week the North is ready to declare how much weapons-grade plutonium it has produced and clarify allegations of having a clandestine programme to enrich uranium for weapons.
Pyongyang, which conducted a nuclear test one year ago, is believed to have enough plutonium to make at least eight or nine atomic bombs.
