The top U.S. envoy for Asia holds a second day of talks with South Korean officials on Tuesday amid hints the United States is softening at the edges its position on the standoff over North Korea's nuclear arms program.North Korea has kept up the pace of its stinging abuse against the United States, which it has threatened to destroy in "a sea of fire," although milder statements by its diplomats indicated it might be hoping for a pause in the crisis.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly was to meet officials of the presidential Blue House in the South Korean capital, Seoul, which lies within easy reach of more than 10,000 North Korean artillery pieces lined up along the world's last Cold War frontier -- the most heavily fortified on earth.

Kelly arrived in Seoul on Sunday for his first trip to the region since October, when he visited Pyongyang and said after meeting senior officials that the North had admitted enriching uranium in a covert nuclear arms program. That admission and a subsequent U.S. decision to halt fuel aid triggered the crisis.

After meeting South Korean president-elect Roh Moo-hyun on Monday, Kelly said Washington was willing to consider helping North Korea resolve its energy crisis if the current impasse could be broken.

Though Kelly was restating a previous offer, he struck a concessionary note by at least holding out the prospect of help if the impoverished, energy-starved state meets a U.S. demand to scrap unconditionally its suspected nuclear program.

Kelly's task is complicated by rising anti-U.S. sentiment in the South, where increasing numbers of people are taking a critical look at the half-century-old bilateral relationship and want more of a say in policy on the Korean peninsula.

BLACKMAIL WON'T WORK

With U.S. options dwindling in the face of North Korea's escalation, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Washington hoped to hold "technical" talks with Pyongyang but repeated that the United States would not give in to blackmail.

"The United States is willing to talk, not negotiate," Fleischer said. "North Korea wants to take the world through its blackmail playbook but we won't play."

Kelly called the hard-line anti-U.S. rhetoric and threats to restart missile tests "a little mystifying" and repeated U.S. statements that Pyongyang's diplomats had covered no new ground in weekend talks in New Mexico with the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Bill Richardson.

Some analysts say North Korea's recent upsurge of belligerent rhetoric against the United States may foreshadow its readiness to explore a way out of the crisis.

GIVING DIPLOMACY A CHANCE

In Vienna, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it was unlikely to convene an emergency board meeting on North Korea this week, deferring critical discussions on whether to pass the issue to the United Nations Security Council.

"Diplomacy is being given a chance to work," IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said about the timing for the meeting.

North Korea's moves have triggered worldwide condemnation, calls for an emergency session of the IAEA, which had been monitoring the North's nuclear facilities, and for action by the U.N. Security Council.

North Korea has said it would address Washington's concerns if the U.S. signed a non-aggression treaty and guaranteed Pyongyang's sovereignty.

PHOTO CAPTION

South Korean President-elect Roh Moo-hyun (R) meets U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly in Seoul Jan. 13, 2003. Kelly, the top U.S. envoy for Asia began talks with South Korea to hammer out a joint approach to defusing an escalating nuclear crisis in the North. (Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)