SEOUL, June 28: The United States pressed North Korea on Saturday to follow up on a breakthrough by abandoning its full atomic weapons programme -- one where Washington sees signs of “emotional attachment” from Pyongyang.“At the end of this (process), we have to have the abandonment of all programmes, weapons and materials,” US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said after talks in Seoul with her South Korean counterpart Yu Myung-Hwan.

Rice was visiting South Korea before travelling on to China on Sunday as part of six-nation talks now focused on verifying a North Korean nuclear inventory submitted on Thursday and on dismantling the full programme.

A day after delivering the long-awaited nuclear inventory or declaration, the North on Friday blew up the cooling tower at its Yongbyon reactor in a televised event to affirm its commitment to denuclearisation.

US envoy Sung Kim said that, while attending the event, he saw signs of an “emotional attachment” to the Yongbyon plant among engineers working there, including plant director Ri Yong-ho.

When asked if the North Koreans were so wedded to the programme that they might not give all of it up, Kim replied that the disarmament process was set up in phases to “test their commitment” each step of the way.

Rice said she and Yu, who spoke at the same press conference, had extensive talks about efforts to verify the declaration, which covers nuclear facilities and the production of bomb-making plutonium, but not weapons.

Critics point out that it also does not address concerns about a suspected secret highly enriched uranium (HEU) weapons programme. Nor does it answer suspicions of nuclear proliferation to Syria.

The North, in a separate document, has merely acknowledged the US concerns about both issues and promised to try to resolve differences.

“In the next phase we do have to move on abandonment. That is the purpose of six-party talks,” Rice said.

“There are documents that are referred to in the declaration concerning those two issues, HEU and proliferation,” she told the press conference.

“Thus far... we don’t have the answers we need about either, but I expect that the North will live up to the obligation that it has undertaken to take those concerns seriously and to address them.” Thursday’s declaration is part of a six-party agreement in which Washington is playing a leading role. The North is disabling Yongbyon under US supervision in return for energy aid and the lifting of some sanctions.

The next and final phase of the pact calls for the North to dismantle plants and hand over all nuclear material and weaponry in exchange for diplomatic ties with the United States and Japan, and a formal peace pact.

Washington has eased some trade sanctions and moved towards taking the North off its list of state sponsors of terrorism in return for the declaration. It helped fund the demolition of the cooling tower with a $2.5 million contribution.

“There is still much to be done but it’s a good step when the North Koreans comply with their obligations,” said National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

The tower at Yongbyon, 96 kilometres north of Pyongyang, was the most visible symbol of the North’s decades-old pursuit of nuclear weapons.

The facility produced the plutonium for a programme which culminated in a nuclear test in October 2006.—AFP