Robert Gallucci, a former U.S. special envoy to North Korea, speaks in the National Assembly, Seoul, Dec. 18, 2017. Yonhap

The United States had believed that North Korea's demand for light water reactors in return for dismantling its nuclear facilities could be a "significant opening" to resolving Pyongyang's nuclear issues, declassified documents showed Friday.

The 30-year-old diplomatic dossiers, released by the South Korean government, show a glimpse behind the whirlwind diplomacy in 1993, also known as the "first North Korean nuclear crisis" that began when the North declared that it would withdraw from the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT), an international treaty on preventing the spread of nuclear weapons.

In March 12, the North said it would drop out of the treaty, citing the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) pressuring for a special inspection of its nuclear facilities and the Team Spirit joint military drills between the South and the U.S.

The North's threat led to Washington and Pyongyang holding high-level talks later that year and the ensuing grueling negotiations in Geneva that paved the way for the now-defunct landmark Agreed Framework in 1994 on dismantling the North's nuclear programs.

The first round of the high-level talks took place in New York in June, led by Robert Gallucci, the then U.S. assistant secretary of state for political and military affairs, and Kang Sok-ju, the North's first vice foreign minister.

The talks had hit a deadlock at first, but the working-level talks made headway, with the two sides adopting a joint statement on the North's postponement of its NPT withdrawal and the U.S. commitment to the non-use of military power against the North, among other terms.

During the second round of the high-level talks in Geneva in July, the North proposed that "all nuclear issues will be resolved if the U.S. cooperates in the North's transition of its graphite-moderated nuclear reactors to light water models," the documents said.

Gallucci and his team believed that the North's offer could be conducive to a potential breakthrough, according to the dossier.

Former South Korean Foreign Minister Han Seung-joo / Korea Times photo

In the talks with then South Korean Foreign Minister Han Seung-joo, Gallucci said that the dialogue with the North made "a small but important progress," and that the light water reactors issue can be a "significant opening" for both Seoul and Washington.

But South Korea remained doubtful about the North's intent.

In the meeting with Congressman Gary Ackerman in Pyongyang, Kim Il-sung assured that his regime had "no nuclear weapons, no ability to produce any, nor has it any reason or motive or money to produce them."

Hearing this from Ackerman, then President Kim Young-sam called that a "complete lie," saying that the satellites and other intelligence show how the North is "making every effort to make the nuclear weapons."

The 1994 agreement committed the North to freezing and ultimately dismantling its nuclear program in exchange for two light water reactors for power generation and the normalization of relations with the United States.

But it fell apart with the second nuclear crisis in late 2002, with revelations that Pyongyang had pursued a clandestine uranium enrichment program. The six-party talks were then launched in 2003 to defuse the crisis, but the nuclear standoff remains ongoing. (Yonhap)