The top Asia hand at the U.S. National Security Council, Dennis Wilder, said North Korea was not “off the hook” on fully declaring its atomic programs, but that proliferation issues would be “handled in a different manner.”

And U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in an apparent concession to Pyongyang, indicated the entire overdue declaration might not be made public.

In another turnaround, she hinted that U.S. sanctions against North Korea could be removed even before the hardline communist state’s nuclear programs or proliferations activities were verified independently.

“Verification can take some time,” she told reporters.

North Korea has been pushing the United States to remove it from the blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism.

Rice said the document incorporating North Korea’s proliferation activities could be kept private, allowing Pyongyang to save face.

“There will be, undoubtedly, briefings for Congress,” on any final arrangement, she said, warning: “This is a diplomatic matter and not everything in diplomacy is public.”

A State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said later that the document would be published “in some form.”

Washington wants North Korea to clear up suspicions about an alleged secret uranium enrichment program and suspected proliferation to Syria. North Korea denies both charges.

For months, Washington had demanded that Pyongyang detail all of its nuclear activities, including any proliferation of nuclear know-how, in a “complete and correct” declaration North Korea had agreed to provide by December 31, 2007.

The declaration was part of a February 2007 landmark deal grouping China, Japan, North and South Korea, Russia and the United States.

Under the agreement, Pyongyang has shut down and begun disabling its key atomic plant in return for energy aid and major diplomatic and security benefits that could eventually mean removal from the state sponsors of terrorism list.

The U.S. government is eager to see the denuclearization drive completed before President George W. Bush leaves office in January 2009. The North tested a nuclear bomb in October 2006.

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