looks like I have plenty to read. Here's something in the meantime. The bold letters were done by yours truly. The original text was unaltered.

S Korea steps up diplomatic effort

South Korea has stepped up efforts to defuse the growing crisis between its northern neighbour and the US over the relaunch of North Korea's nuclear programme.
In a flurry of diplomatic activity, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Hang-Kyung is currently in Moscow to discuss the issue, while Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Tae-Shik left Beijing on Friday after obtaining China's pledge to help solve the crisis "peacefully through dialogue".

In a further conciliatory move, South Korea's National Security Council met on Saturday to discuss proposals asking for concessions from both Washington and Pyongyang.

But the US has again rejected North Korea's latest call for direct talks, saying the stand-off could only be resolved if the communist state renounces its nuclear programme.

Tensions escalated last month when North Korea decided to reactivate a nuclear complex which had been out of action since a 1994 agreement with the US.

Role as mediator

BBC correspondent in Seoul, Charles Scanlon says South Korea is taking the initiative to try to find a way out of the confrontation.

"It is the government's firm principle that we should settle the North Korea nuclear issue peacefully and diplomatically by any means," a government official said on Saturday.

China is seen as North Korea's closest ally, and Russia recently signed a friendship treaty with Pyongyang which, correspondents say, gives Moscow an important diplomatic role to play in the crisis.

The South Korean Security Council's meeting is another attempt at resolving the situation - this time by formulating a compromise deal which Seoul can take to the negotiating table on Monday when South Korean officials meet US and Japanese counterparts in Washington.

North Korea is currently demanding direct talks with the US and a non-aggression pact before it agrees to give up its nuclear programme.

But on Friday the Bush administration reiterated its demand that Pyongyang make the first move.

"The issue is not non-aggression, the issue is whether North Korea will verifiably dismantle this nuclear enrichment programme," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher.

South Korean newspaper reports say that Seoul may ask Washington to give North Korea a written assurance guaranteeing its sovereignty if Pyongyang first scraps its nuclear programme - thereby avoiding the need for a non-aggression pact.
But South Korea still has an uphill battle in its role as mediator.

There has been little sign of compromise so far, and the impression of discord may well have encouraged the North Koreans to press their demands, our correspondent says.

Nuclear programme

Pyongyang accepts it has broken the terms of the 1994 agreement it made with the US by removing surveillance equipment from a nuclear plant supposed to remain dormant.

But it said it needed the Yongbyon plant to generate electricity after the US stopped sending aid shipments of oil.

For its part, the US said it halted oil deliveries after North Korea had admitted carrying out banned nuclear work.