Washington split over how to deal with North Korea

A fresh split between Washington's hawks and doves has been made public in the days before this week's crucial talks on the North Korean nuclear weapons crisis.

Evidence of the row was detailed by The New York Times yesterday, which said a secret Pentagon memorandum urged President George Bush to team up with China and oust the regime of Kim Jong Il through joint diplomatic pressure.

The disagreement over North Korea appears to echo the split that divided factions within Washington before the military assault against Iraq. Once more the Pentagon, headed by Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, seems to favour a more confrontational approach than the State Department under Colin Powell, the Secretary of State.

The memo, allegedly circulated shortly before Mr Bush approved the opening of direct talks with Pyongyang, does not advocate military means to remove Kim Jong Il. Rather, it reportedly suggests recruiting China into a concerted diplomatic effort to squeeze his regime out of power.

General Powell has argued in favour of engaging the regime to persuade it to step back from developing nuclear weapons in return for economic aid and investment from the United States. He also wants to make clear to Pyongyang that Washington does not intend to undermine Kim Jong Il's rule or launch a military strike.

With the talks about to open, General Powell seems to have won the case with Mr Bush, reportedly creating some bitterness inside the Pentagon.

One source told The New York Times: "There's a sense in the Pentagon that Powell got this arranged while everyone was distracted with Iraq. And now there is a race over who will control the next steps."

South Korea voiced confidence last night that Washington was committed to dialogue with Pyongyang. They "explained to us that there has been no change in its North Korean policy and said it does not have anything new or creative plans over North Korea's nuclear issue", Lee Hyuck, the deputy foreign minister, said.

Contacts between North Korea and the US were broken off in October when Pyongyang admitted it had developed a uranium-enrichment programme for nuclear weapons. The two days of talks, starting on Thursday, will focus mostly on procedural matters and at best will set the stage for further rounds.

James Kelly, assistant secretary of state for east Asia, who confronted the North on a visit to Pyongyang last year with damning evidence, is due to lead the American delegation after going to Seoul and Tokyo to consult allies.

Mr Bush held out hope at the weekend for a resolution of the crisis and praised China for hosting the talks. China shifted its position in January after its new leader, Hu Jintao, became alarmed that hawks in Washington might launch a pre-emptive strike against the North, and that a war on China's doorstep could seriously damage its trade and investment plans.

A diplomat in Beijing said: "This is now China's No 1 foreign policy issue. President Hu Jintao set a special task force to rethink policy on North Korea, and is now putting pressure on them so they don't do anything to provoke the Americans."

North Korea is sticking to its usual practice of diplomatic brinkmanship. But Pyongyang also suddenly announced that after first cancelling cabinet-level talks with the South, it was now ready to resume them. The talks are due to begin on 27 April. South Korea accepted the invitation yesterday.