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