Jack Pritchard, a past negotiator with North Korea, would not say whether he had seen material that could be used in making bombs.

But he said: "There was some practical discussion that focused on forging a deal in six-nation talks, which include the United States."

"They don't want to be seen as the obstacle to six-party talks."

Pritchard was part of an unofficial delegation that was shown an empty holding pond at the North's Yongbyon plant that once contained 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods.

But he would not say whether North Korea had shown them nuclear bomb-making materials or what had happened to the rods.

"The North Koreans said they had moved them for reprocessing" into plutonium, he said. Plutonium is needed for a nuclear weapon.

"I continue to believe that they have a (highly enriched uranium) program," he said.

Pritchard deferred to Siegfried Hecker, former director of the nuclear Los Alamos National Laboratory, who was also on the trip and who is to speak to Congress Tuesday. Pritchard said Hecker had briefed Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham.

Pritchard spoke at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think-tank, about his five-day trip with Hecker and three others to North Korea.

Pritchard was present at a October 2002 meeting when the United States said North Korea admitted to having a clandestine enrichment program. That admission sparked the latest nuclear standoff.

The United States said North Korea had breached a 1994 agreement in which it had agreed to abandon its nuclear weapons program in exchange for fuel oil and two light-water reactors.

North Korea demanded a US promise of non-aggression. Six-nation talks between China, the United States, the two Koreas, Russia and Japan were held in August but ended inconclusively.

John Lewis, a scholar at Stanford University, led the unofficial delegation to Pyongyang. Congressional staffers Frank Jannuzi and Keith Luse were also on the trip.

Pritchard said that during the visit, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gae Gwan denied that Pyongyang did not have a program, the equipment or the scientists to create the enriched uranium needed for a bomb.

Pritchard said Kim warned him: "Time is not on your side."

"'As time goes by, we are increasing our arsenal,' is their message," Pritchard said.

North Korea offered recently to freeze its nuclear weapons drive in return for concessions, including an end to US sanctions and a resumption of energy aid. Washington is holding out for a commitment from Pyongyang to scrap its nuclear programs.

Pritchard said he asked North Korean officials what it would take to satisfy the United States.

"They did not say what the price tag was," he said.

WAR.WIRE