North Korea says US offered food for nuclear shutdown

North Korea said Wednesday that the United States had offered food aid and a suspension of sanctions if it halted its uranium enrichment programme. The comments by a foreign ministry spokesman to Pyongyang's official news agency were the first by the North on the issue. Before the sudden death of the North's leader Kim Jong-Il on December 17, there were several media reports that such an agreement was imminent.
At talks in July last year, Washington "proposed to take confidence-building steps such as suspension of sanctions, as well as food aid" in return for a "temporary suspension" of uranium enrichment, the North's spokesman said. Experts say the uranium programme disclosed in November 2010 could give the communist state a second way to make nuclear weapons. The disclosure spurred efforts to revive stalled six-party nuclear disarmament negotiations.