31.   Reports Saturday said the North has offered a compromise measure that calls for U.S.-South Korea joint design and manufacture of the replacement reactors.

32.   South Korea has said it would cover most of the costs for building the replacement reactors, but only if its own reactor model is adopted.

33.   South Korea on Friday urged U.S. negotiators to stand firm to break the current nuclear deadlock with North Korea over replacement reactors.

34.   South Korea will hold high-level talks Friday with the United States and Japan concerning the provision of those replacement reactors, the officials said.

35.   South Korea is expected to be the main provider of the replacement reactors.

36.   The accord calls for North Korea to dismantle its suspicious nuclear program in exchange for two replacement reactors.

37.   The agreement is in danger of collapsing because North Korea is refusing South Korean replacement reactors designated by the U.S. side.

38.   The delays prompted Ukraine to ask Russia for help completing the two replacement reactors and renovating the third reactor at Chernobyl.

39.   The Korea Peninsula Energy Development Organization, a multinational consortium set up to provide the replacement reactors, has been given full authority to choose the design and contractor.

40.   The North has caused a snag in implementing the accord, designed to end its suspected nuclear weapons program, by refusing South Korean-designed replacement reactors.