PYONGYANG, May 15 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK) move to hand over its key nuclear weapons documents to the United States reflected its will to restart the stalled six-party talks and was a sign of growing trust between Pyongyang and Washington, analysts said.

    Sung Kim, director of the Korea Office at the U.S. State Department who returned to the United States Monday with the dossier, said Tuesday the nuclear documents "will provide an important first step in verifying" Pyongyang's declaration.

    The documents, numbering 18,822 pages in 314 volumes, are detailed technical logs from the DPRK's plutonium reactor over the past two decades.

    "They are an important element in the verification of a declaration which will include figures for the amount of plutonium they (the DPRK) have produced," Kim said last week after receiving the documents in Pyongyang.

    The amount of plutonium produced is among the three issues where the DPRK differed with the United States regarding Pyongyang's nuclear declaration. The other two issues are its uranium enrichment program and alleged nuclear cooperation with Syria.

    The DPRK reportedly told the United States late last year that it had 30 kg of plutonium while Washington believed Pyongyang had 50 kg.

    Analysts say experts will be able to come up with an accurate figure after analyzing the documents. The United States said reviewing the documents would take several weeks.

    After several rounds of direct talks, Washington and Pyongyang have reportedly reached agreement on the declaration, which could see Pyongyang make an open declaration on its plutonium production and a classified memorandum of understanding on its uranium enrichment work and nuclear cooperation with Syria.

    Although the reports on the forms of declaration have not been confirmed, things seemed to have gone toward that direction with Pyongyang's handover of its nuclear documents, analysts said.

    INCENTIVES & GROWING TRUST

    Under an agreement reached at the six-party talks in Beijing last February, the DPRK agreed to abandon all nuclear weapons and programs and declare all its nuclear programs and facilities by the end of 2007, in exchange for diplomatic and economic incentives.

    Pyongyang, despite missing the deadline, has reaffirmed its willingness to work for a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula and resolve the nuclear issue through the six-party talks, saying its denuclearization should be part of the process toward normalizing relations with Washington.

    To this end, the DPRK tried to show its determination and achieve an early restart of the six-party talks by taking a substantial step forward, analysts said.

    Meanwhile, the direct talks between Pyongyang and Washington since last year have helped their initial mutual trust to grow and relations to improve, they said, adding that Pyongyang sounded out Washington's sincerity with the agreement on the nuclear declaration.

    The six-party talks have moved forward since August 2003 despite twists and turns. The start of work to disable the DPRK's three nuclear facilities in Yongbyon marked a substantial step toward denuclearization on the peninsula, though the work has not been completed yet. The differences over the nuclear declaration, however, have delayed the completion of the second phase of actions.

    The United States will move to remove the DPRK from its list of state sponsors of terrorism if Washington does not raise any objections after examining the documents, analysts said.

    U.S.-DPRK ties will further improve with the lifting of the sanctions on Pyongyang stemming from its inclusion on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, and all sides at the six-party talks will discuss next steps in denuclearization, they said.