Three-part plan to defuse NK nukes
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North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan.
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Six-nation talks on resolving the North Korea nuclear crisis begin in Beijing.
North Korean television's own version of reality TV, starring none other than leader Kim Jong Il.
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BEIJING, China -- A second day of talks over North Korea's nuclear program has begun in Beijing with delegates expected to focus on a three-stage plan proposed by South Korea to defuse the standoff.
The plan was revealed by South Korea's Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuck, who told reporters "countermeasures" would be offered to Pyongyang in exchange for freezing its nuclear activity.
Under the plan, the North would pledge its intention to dismantle its nuclear programs and other countries would meet its security concerns, Reuters reported him saying.
The second phase would be implementation and the third would address other outstanding issues.
"If it is such a freeze, we can push for countermeasures," Lee said.
He did not elaborate, and it was unclear if his proposal had been directly endorsed by the United States.
Robert Galluci, a former diplomat who held talks with the North Koreans last decade, told CNN "the buzz" in Washington was that U.S. special envoy James Kelly -- who heads the U.S. delegation in Beijing -- would be ready to talk to the North Koreans about a step-by-step process to defuse the crisis.
The U.S. has until now demanded North Korea first dismantle all its nuclear weapons programs and Washington has said it will not be blackmailed into any concessions.
"The dismantlement of their nuclear weapons program is critical to any further movement in the talks," John Bolton, undersecretary of state, said.
North Korea matched the United States with an 11th-hour demand for compensation for shutting down its nuclear program, an extension of its longtime demand for humanitarian and economic aid.
The North also wants a nonaggression treaty with the United States or at least a security guarantee from all five of its negotiating partners.
The United States on Wednesday reiterated its position that it has "no intention of invading or attacking" the North.
Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing told the envoys at a banquet on Wednesday night they should "not allow differences to impede the process of the dialogue, even divert the direction of seeking political solution to the problem," the official Xinhua news agency reported.
The talks -- between North and South Korea, Russia, Japan, China and the United States -- took six months of diplomatic shuffling after a first round last August failed to make any progress other than a loose commitment to meet again.
Unlike the August meeting, this round of discussions, which began Wednesday, has no time limit or deadline.
One unusual development Wednesday afternoon was a bilateral "informal discussion" after the first session of talks between the U.S. and North Korea.
U.S. envoy Kelly spent more than an hour in talks with North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan, The Associated Press reported.
No details were immediately available from either side.
U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, however, described the session as "useful."
The standoff between the U.S. and North Korea flared in October 2002 when U.S. officials said Pyongyang admitted to secretly pursuing a nuclear weapons program.
North Korea was labeled a rogue state and part of an axis of evil with Iran and Iraq by U.S. President George W. Bush in 2002.
Since the previous round of talks a new twist has developed: Pakistan's revelation that rogue scientist Abdel-Qadeer Khan provided North Korea with technology and know-how to make a uranium-based bomb to complement the country's plutonium-based weapons program.
Libya progress
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North Korea praised its ally China for working to set up and host the talks.
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In recent weeks, progress has been made in connection with the scrapping of other notorious nuclear programs. For example, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has abandoned his nuclear weapons program, and Iran is talking to the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Kim Jong Il's regime, however, has denied the existence of a uranium program, so getting the North to admit it is high on the U.S. agenda.
"I think the uranium enrichment program is the 800-pound gorilla in the negotiating room. You can't solve a problem if you deny that it exists or if you wish it away," Bolton said.
U.S. officials believe North Korea has at least one or two nuclear bombs made from plutonium but some experts doubt it has the ability to mount a nuclear warhead on a missile. North Korea has claimed to have reprocessed 8,000 spent plutonium fuel rods at its main Yongbyon reactor -- enough to build up to six nuclear devices.
Galluci said the key issue is whether the North Koreans -- who he said have uranium-enrichment and plutonium-based programs -- will permit international inspections, transparency, and destruction and dismantlement of programs, and whether other countries will put benefits on the table to spur concessions.
"The question (for North Korea) is not so much what they want, but what they are prepared to give up to get it."
-- CNN Senior Asia Correspondent Mike Chinoy contributed to this report
