| A senior U.S. congressional aide and two other | | | | former director of the Los Alamos Nuclear |
| Americans will travel to North Korea next week to | | | | Laboratory, where the U.S. atomic bomb was |
| discuss ongoing efforts to disable the country's | | | | developed. |
| nuclear weapons program. | | | | Luse says North Korean officials began to ask more |
| Keith Luse, an aide to Senator Richard Lugar, tells | | | | detailed questions about the Nunn-Lugar program |
| VOA Korean Service that they will meet with North | | | | when he visited the country last year in October. In |
| Korean officials during the five-day visit. But complete | | | | particular, he says they are interested in learning |
| details of the trip will not be available until after they | | | | more about how nuclear scientists and technicians at |
| arrive in Pyongyang. | | | | Yongbyon could use their skills for other projects. |
| Luse says the delegation expects to discuss the | | | | North Korea is in the process of disabling its |
| possibility of using a U.S. program, the Nunn-Lugar | | | | Yongbyon facility and U.S. officials say most of the |
| program, to destroy nuclear weapons in North Korea. | | | | work is already done. But talks about North Korea's |
| The program was previously used in the former | | | | nuclear weapons program have stalled since it failed |
| Soviet Union to prevent nuclear weapons from falling | | | | to meet a deadline late last year to declare all its |
| into the wrong hands. | | | | nuclear activities. |
| Luse will travel to North Korea with a former State | | | | Since then, participants in the six-nation talks have |
| Department official and North Korea expert, Joel | | | | been trying to get Pyongyang to hand over the list |
| Witt, as well as Siegfried Hecker. Hecker is the | | | | and keep the talks moving forward. |