South Korean officials say their agreement Sunday to send rice to help North Korea feed its people will only go through if Pyongyang honors a pledge to begin dismantling its nuclear weapons program. And President Bush's special envoy monitoring human rights in North Korea says Pyongyang must change its ways before normalization of U.S. relations can take place.

The U.S. ambassador to South Korea says Washington and Seoul do not have widely divergent views on North Korea, despite an announcement Sunday that the South is ready on its own and outside the six-party nuclear talks framework to provide food aid to the North. VOA's Stephanie Ho reports from Washington.

North and South Korean officials continued to negotiate Saturday, hours after they were due to wrap up four days of economic talks. The two sides were expected to issue a joint statement hours ago in the North's capital, Pyongyang. But reports say South Korea first wants the North to commit to honoring its nuclear disarmament pledge.

Reports from South Korea say North Korea may be preparing to close its nuclear reactor at the center of a stalled six-nation nuclear disarmament process. South Korean media said Tuesday that U.S. satellite images showed increased activity around the Yongbyon reactor, with unusual movement of people and vehicles.

South Korea may delay resuming rice aid to North Korea after Pyongyang missed a deadline to start shutting its nuclear reactor under a disarmament deal, a local daily reported today.

An April 14 deadline has passed and there are no signs that North Korea has begun to shut down its main nuclear reactor, as it agreed to do in February. VOA's Luis Ramirez reports from Beijing, where diplomats have gathered to see where the nuclear disarmament negotiations are going next.

North Korea still says it intends to abide by a February agreement to shut down its main nuclear facilities - but not until it confirms the receipt of millions of dollars previously frozen in a Macau bank. Frustration at the lack of progress is showing, as the chief U.S. envoy to the North Korea nuclear disarmament talks, a usually talkative diplomat, brushed past reporters with hardly a word on his arrival in Beijing.

The chief U.S. and South Korean negotiators on North Korea's nuclear weapons program say Pyongyang needs to begin shutting down its nuclear reactor despite the probability of missing a Saturday deadline. Daniel Schearf reports from Beijing.

North Korea says it will miss an April 14 deadline to shut down its main nuclear reactor, but could start the process within 30 days. The U.S. television network NBC quotes Pyongyang's chief nuclear negotiator, Kim Kye-Gwan, as making the comments to a visiting U.S. team led by Bill Richardson, the governor of the U.S. state of New Mexico.

U.S. officials say Macau authorities are ready to release $25 million from North Korean bank accounts. Pyongyang has refused to halt its nuclear programs until it receives the money. Daniel Schearf reports from Beijing.

The main U.S. nuclear envoy said Tuesday that the pending release of North Korea's money frozen at a Macau bank should pave the way for Pyongyang to meet its obligations under a disarmament agreement.

The top U.S. nuclear envoy said Monday that a mid-April deadline for North Korea to shut down its nuclear reactor is becoming difficult to meet because of an ongoing dispute over frozen North Korean funds.