WASHINGTON, Aug. 7 Kyodo - The United States has presented to Japan and South Korea its proposals for strictly verifying North Korea's dismantlement of nuclear programs after the three-month preparatory period earlier proposed, a senior U.S. official and diplomatic sources said Saturday.

The proposal features on-site probes by International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors and questioning of North Korean researchers after Pyongyang makes a basic declaration on all its nuclear programs during the proposed three months in which it freezes them, the sources said.

Washington is also considering bringing in nuclear-related materials and equipment from North Korea in the same way it dealt with Libya after the country declared it would abandon weapons of mass destruction last December, they said.

The United States plans to refine the proposal after hearing opinions from Japan and South Korea and present it at the fourth round of six-party talks on the North's nuclear ambitions, planned in Beijing by the end of September.

It proposed the three-month preparatory period in the previous round in June in Beijing as well as incentives, including energy aid by the other four countries and a provisional multinational security guarantee, if Pyongyang commits to scrapping all the programs.

The United States is planning to play a leading role in the envisaged inspection and verification process by sparing no cost, the U.S. official said.

The proposals are aimed at promoting a smooth start to the North's nuclear dismantlement -- a goal for the U.S. administration of President George W. Bush -- by verifying its declaration and see whether Pyongyang has made a strategic decision to completely give up nuclear programs, the sources said.

But whether North Korea will accept them is uncertain as Pyongyang has called for compensation measures in return for freezing its nuclear programs.

The U.S. official said inspections will be conducted by experts from the Untied States, Japan, South Korea, China and Russia that are parties to the six-way talks and nuclear powers Britain and France, as well as IAEA inspectors.

Japan is expected to join the planned inspection team, but not to take part when it enters the production and storing facilities of nuclear weapons where the weapons would be dismantled and analyzed, the sources said.

The six-party talks began in August 2003 to defuse the nuclear crisis that erupted in October 2002 when the United States said North Korea had admitted to running a secret uranium enrichment program in violation of international agreements.

Tensions heightened from late 2002 to early 2003 as North Korea restarted a mothballed nuclear power station, expelled IAEA inspectors and declared its withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

==Kyodo