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WASHINGTON-U.S. demands for verification presented to Pyongyang lead to the apparent unraveling of a 2007 deal to end North Korea's atomic bomb program, The Washington Post reported on Friday. Under the proposal presented last week, the United States requested "full access to all materials" at sites that might have had a nuclear purpose in the past, the Post said, citing a copy of the document obtained by the newspaper. The four-page document also sought "full access to any site, facility or location" deemed relevant to the nuclear program, including military facilities, the article said.Details of the verification plan have not been revealed before, the newspaper said. It cited unnamed officials as saying that the proposal had deeply split the Bush administration. The proposal, heavily influenced by the State Department's arms control experts, said investigators would be able to take photographs and make videos, remain on site as long as necessary, make repeated visits and collect and remove samples, The Washington Post reported. Citing officials it did not identify, the newspaper said the United States pressed ahead with the proposal despite warnings from China, Russia and other countries that it was asking too much of the xenophobic North Koreans. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the chief U.S. negotiator, and his aides were opposed to making such an opening bid, but they were overruled at higher levels. North Korea immediately balked at the verification plan and the once-promising talks were at an impasse, the paper said. North Korea had been warning visitors privately for months that it would object to an extensive inspection proposal. North Korea said on Friday it was working on reactivating the plutonium-producing Yongbyon complex, the basis of its atomic bomb program, which it was dismantling under a much delayed disarmament-for-aid deal among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States. On Monday, North Korea asked the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog to remove seals and cameras from its main atomic complex, International Atomic Energy Agency Director Mohamed El Baradei told a meeting of the IAEA Board of Directors.As in the days of Noah...
