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The United States hopes North Korea's declaration of its nuclear programs, expected by year's end, will also answer questions about any proliferation activities, Washington's top nuclear envoy said Friday.

Christopher Hill, assistant secretary of state, declined to address directly press reports of North Korean nuclear cooperation with Syria.

When Pyongyang provides a list of its atomic programs, "we would need to know what all of their programs are, and obviously any proliferation," he said.

"So at the end of all this, we would expect to have a pretty clear idea of whether they've engaged in proliferation in other countries."

North Korea has long been suspected of selling missile technology to Syria, but the latest reports, still unverified, say Pyongyang may also have transferred nuclear-related material.

"I assure you, we follow these things very closely, and a lot of what we do (at) six parties is addressing precisely that," said Hill, referring to the multilateral denuclearization forum meeting next week.

South and North Korea, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan are members of the six-country talks aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons development. An agreement struck in February lays out phased steps leading to eventual dismantlement of North Korea's atomic weapons and programs in return for political and economic rewards from other governments.

The six-party meeting is scheduled to resume in Beijing mid-week, and it is uncertain how the fresh allegations of a North Korea-Syria nuclear connection would affect the negotiations that until now appeared upbeat.

Hill, the top U.S. envoy to the six-party forum, asserted that the Syria issue is all the more reason to push ahead with the talks.

"News of this kind is an important reminder of the need to accelerate the process that we are already engaged in...to achieve denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," he said at a briefing before heading out to Beijing.

"And that, of course, involves any issues of proliferation."

Andrew Semmel, acting deputy assistant secretary of state for nuclear nonproliferation, told reporters during a conference in Rome that there are North Koreans in Syria, which has "secret suppliers" giving it nuclear equipment.

But he would not say for certain that Pyongyang was one of the suppliers.

Hill side-stepped a barrage of questions about Syria, saying he cannot go into intelligence matters. He would not answer whether he would confront the North Koreans about it when they meet next week.

He emphasized instead that a nuclear survey team, made of U.S.,

Chinese and Russian experts currently in Pyongyang, were able to "work very closely" with the North Koreans on disabling North Korea's known nuclear facilities.

"I think we have a pretty good shot at getting something in the next six-party meeting," he said, to work out "precisely how we are going to disable these facilities."

The team toured the Yongbyon complex, where North Korea has three primary installations that have been churning out weapons-grade plutonium. Pyongyang shut down these facilities, as required in the first phase of the February deal. The second phase requires the North to disable them and make a full accounting of all of its nuclear programs, including suspected uranium enrichment.

The February agreement also envisions heavy fuel oil shipments or other in-kind aid to North Korea, a six-nation ministerial meeting, and a peace treaty formally ending the 1950-1953 Korean War.

Hill said U.S. provision of heavy fuel oil would begin in the fall.

"We think they (North Koreans) are moving on their obligations, and so we can move on our obligation," he said.

The U.S. also has offered substantial food assistance in the wake of record rainfall in the North that swept away much of its crops. The envoy said Washington is prepared to discuss it with Pyongyang.

Hill said the six-nation ministerial could come "pretty soon."

"If we are okay in the next six-party plenary... then I think we will be ready to go with the ministerial," the envoy said.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 (Yonhap)