U.S. envoy looks to save nuclear deal in North Korea

By Jon Herskovitz

SEOUL (Reuters) - A senior U.S. envoy traveled to North Korea on Wednesday with a possible compromise to rescue a faltering nuclear disarmament deal and also prevent Pyongyang from rebuilding a plant that made weapons-grade plutonium.

Over the past several weeks, North Korea has begun to revive a Soviet-era nuclear reactor that is capable of producing plutonium and expelled U.N. nuclear monitors.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill drove from Seoul to the heavily armed border, a U.S. official said. He arrived by car in Pyongyang in the afternoon, the North's KCNA news agency said.

A senior U.S. official has described Hill's visit as a "last-ditch effort to get things on track".

Yonhap news agency cited a South Korean government source familiar with the talks as saying: "The U.S. has come up with a revised draft verification protocol. Hill will try to reach a compromise on it."

Analysts have said the North might be trying to pressure the outgoing Bush administration as it looks for diplomatic successes to bolster its legacy. The North might also be thinking it can seek a better deal under a new U.S. president.

"What they have been doing, obviously, goes against the spirit of what we have been trying to accomplish," Hill said on Tuesday. He did not say when he planned to return