U.S. HINTS AT BILATERAL TALKS WITH N. KOREA DUE TO IDLED 6-WAY TALKS.

WASHINGTON, April 30 Asia Pulse - The United States Thursday hinted at its willingness to engage in bilateral nuclear negotiations with North Korea amid slim chances that the North will return to the six-party roundtable.

"If we have to look at other options, you know, diplomatic options, we certainly will," State Department spokesman Robert Wood said. "There is skepticism about the North's intentions, and it doesn't appear likely that the North, at least from the signs we have seen so far, is willing to return to the negotiating table."

Wood echoed U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's remarks earlier in the day that U.S. funds for North Korea's denuclearization remain available "in the event, which at this point seems implausible if not impossible, the North Koreans return to the six-party talks and begin to disable their nuclear capacity again."

Clinton appeared before the Senate Appropriations Committee to defend a budget request for the dismantlement of the North's nuclear facilities under a six-party process, which has been in limbo since December over how to verify Pyongyang's nuclear activities.

The Obama administration has asked for US$176.5 million for the fiscal year starting in October for North Korea's denuclearization.

The U.S. is obligated to provide 200,000 tons of heavy fuel oil and help pay for disabling North Korea's nuclear facilities in the second phase of the six-party deal. The third and final phase calls North Korea to dismantle all of its nuclear programs and facilities in return for hefty economic and political benefits from the five other parties to the talks -- South Korea, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan.

North Korea, however, has threatened to boycott the six-party talks, conduct further nuclear and ballistic missile tests and restart its nuclear facilities being disabled under a six-party deal in defiance of the U.N. Security Council's condemnation of its recent rocket launch.