The United States, since the Clinton administration, has urged Seoul to take this step, but this is the first time a South Korean president has officially proposed doing so. “Both North and South Korea must change their ways,” Lee said in an interview with Washington Post editors and reporters.

The South Korean president, who will stay at Camp David Friday night for meetings with President Bush, said that North Korea is having trouble adjusting to the new tone set by his nascent administration on intra-Korean matters. Lee has linked improvements in the economic relationship between the two countries to progress on eliminating North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs, a significant shift from his predecessor’s policy.

Lee, 68, a former chief executive of the Hyundai Group and mayor of Seoul, has signaled his intent to work more closely with the United States, particularly on the six-nation negotiations to abolish North Korea’s nuclear programs. U.S. officials have high hopes for greatly improving the sometimes rocky relationship with South Korea during Lee’s tenure.

During the interview, he embraced the recent U.S. proposal to have North Korea “acknowledge” U.S. concerns and evidence about its apparent efforts to enrich uranium and its suspected nuclear trading with Syria, rather than provide its own dossier on such activities. Lee said that the solution — criticized by U.S. conservatives — would offer North Korea “an indirect way to being involved in these two activities,” therefore allowing the stalled negotiations to move forward.

In a further hint of flexibility, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice suggested to reporters Thursday that Washington may lift two key sanctions against North Korea even before the nation’s assertions are verified.

“Verification can take some time,” Rice said.

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