North Korea has told the United States it would begin dismantling its nuclear weapons program in return for normalising ties between the two countries and a security guarantee.

The offer was the "new bold proposal" North Korea said it put to the US at talks in Beijing last week - where the communist state admitted to already having nuclear weapons and said it was prepared to make a "physical demonstration" of them.

But the US maintained its position that it would not begin negotiations with North Korea until the nuclear program was dismantled in a verifiable way.

Nevertheless, South Korean Government officials appear encouraged by the proposal, seeing a glimmer of hope in the crisis.

The attitude was exemplified by Seoul's National Security Adviser, Ra Jong-yil, who said the US and its allies should look at the "bright aspects" of the Beijing meeting.

Details of Pyongyang's proposal emerged yesterday in South Korea, with several daily newspapers quoting South Korean Government sources. The Munhwa Ilbo newspaper reported that, apart from a security guarantee, the North also wanted Washington to recognise its political system, and not hinder its economic development.

North Korea's official news agency carried a report from the ruling Worker's Party newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, indicating that the Government wants "rewards" for ending its nuclear program.

The paper said the nuclear issue would "not be settled easily" if the US kept urging North Korea "to accept its demand while insisting on its viewpoint that it never makes a concession because it is a big power."

"The US statement that there will be no provision of rewards even after the settlement of the 'nuclear issue' is, in essence, little short of opposing the conclusion of a non-aggression treaty between the two countries," it said.

South Korean officials were again frustrated yesterday in their attempts to confront North Korea over its nuclear arms, with negotiators from Pyongyang refusing to answer direct questions.

Seoul had hoped to use cabinet-level talks in Pyongyang to question North Korea about the nuclear issue. But the North has been adamant that it will only deal with the US on the nuclear crisis.

In a government building resembling an oversize mausoleum in Baghdad, Major Charlotte Herring, a US Army lawyer, faced a nervous Iraqi lawyer, Fatima Suaad Ibrahim. A translator sat between them. Ms Ibrahim, 36, told Major Herring she lived with her parents, three brothers and their families in a house in Baghdad.

Major Herring, a single mother who has served in the army for 13 years, told her the Americans were urgently seeking Iraqi lawyers and jurists. They want to rebuild the legal system and to understand the structure of a court and prison system that remained an enigma.

Major Herring, with the staff judge advocate's office of the 3rd Infantry Division, questioned Ms Ibrahim who described an Iraqi system in which bribery was common.

She said judges had insulted her because she was a woman. She also said she had adored her job as a lawyer because it gave her a sense of freedom. She also described the system as a shadowy world where loyalty to Saddam Hussein was often a question of survival.

Ms Ibrahim said that lawyers attended two-year institutes to become judges in criminal and civil courts. Serious crimes like murder were handled by three-judge panels called the Court of Sessions.
Asked how many judges were women, Ms Ibrahim replied: "Only five or six. "That will change," Major Herring said.