Citing a top U.S. official, Japan's Asahi newspaper reported Tuesday that Washington would no longer insist on using the phrase, "Complete, Verifiable and Irreversible Dismantlement", when urging North Korea to end its nuclear ambitions.
The official, however, was quoted as quickly adding that the new policy did not signal U.S. backpedaling from its demands that the CVID principle be applied to the communist state.
Analysts are scrutinizing the move as a possible sign of new American flexibility in the wake of a recent report that President Bush had attached a title of respect when referring to Pyongyang's leader, Kim Jong-il, during Bush's APEC summit tour.
The Japanese paper said Washington's apparent retreat from insisting on the CVID term was likely aimed at injecting momentum into the stalled six-way nuclear talks.