By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter

South Korean and U.S. Presidents pledged Saturday that they would not accept any temporary deal regarding North Korea's declaration on its nuclear programs.

In a joint press availability at the Camp David U.S. presidential retreat in Virginia, Maryland, President Lee Myung-bak and U.S. President George W. Bush urged North Korea to disclose a complete and verifiable list of past and current nuclear activities to meet promises made to participating nations at six-way nuclear talks.

``The burden of proof is there,'' Bush said. ``We've laid out ― they've made some promises, and we'll make a judgment as to whether they met those promises.''

President Lee supported Bush's view, saying if North Korea's declaration or the verification is not satisfactory, it could cause ``serious problems.''

The remarks were made in response to a question about whether Washington was scaling back its demands about what North Korea has to declare following talks between American and North Korean chief nuclear negotiators in Singapore earlier this month.

Reports said U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill and his North Korean counterpart, Kim Kye-gwan, agreed on a tentative deal in which the North would ``acknowledge'' concerns about its uranium enrichment program and transfer of nuclear technology to Syria in a secret side-agreement with the United States.

The main declaration would refer only to the acknowledged plutonium-based weapons operation, they said.

The U.S. President dismissed such reports ``rumors.''

``Obviously I'm not going to accept a deal that doesn't advance the interests of the region,'' he said. ``The whole objective of the six-party talks and framework is to get them to disclose their weapons programs, is to get them to dismantle their plutonium processing, is to get them to talk about activities, nuclear activities.''

The second phase of last year's six-party nuclear deal has been stalled for months over disagreements on whether Pyongyang has fulfilled its pledge to give a declaration of its nuclear programs.

Under the pact, the North will receive 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil or its equivalent in aid and other political concessions from the five other countries in return for disabling its key nuclear facilities and disclosing its nuclear programs.

The communist state shut down key plutonium-producing facilities in Yonbyon last year but missed a year-end deadline for the promised declaration. It argues it gave the United States the list in November, while Washington says the list was incomplete.

As a follow-up measure to the Singapore talks, a group of U.S. nuclear experts will visit North Korea this week to verify Pyongyang's declaration of its nuclear inventory, a key step to moving on to the next phase of the disarmament process, U.S. officials said.

Lee reiterated that the North's nuclear problem should be resolved within the six-party framework, while calling for patience for complete resolution of the issue.

``It's difficult to convince North Korea to give up its nuclear program, but it's not impossible,'' said Lee. ``In order to resolve this issue, I believe that the six-party talks are the most effective mechanism to resolve this issue.''

During a meeting with reporters after the news conference, the South Korean head of state said Bush accepted his invitation to Seoul for summit talks in July.

gallantjung@koreatimes.co.kr