The United States and Japan have turned down South Korea's two-stage approach to settle the standoff over North Korea's nuclear weapons programs, diplomatic sources said Wednesday.
The proposal calls for dealing with North Korea's plutonium-based nuclear program before its uranium enrichment program. It was presented at talks held by senior officials from Japan, South Korea and the U.S. in Washington on Monday and Tuesday.
While insisting the uranium enrichment program is a long way from completion and is not certain to work, South Korea proposed the U.S. resume fuel oil shipments and give a written security guarantee to North Korea in exchange for Pyongyang abandoning its plutonium-based nuclear program, the sources said.
But the U.S. rejected the proposal, saying both programs pose a threat and that resuming fuel oil shipments and providing a written security guarantee would be tantamount to giving in to North Korea's dangerous game of nuclear brinkmanship, they said.