According to the newspaper, diplomats at the State Department's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs disagreed with officials at the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL) over the tone and nuance of the report.

DRL officials tend to be hard-line human rights advocates, the newspaper said, while those at the regional bureau prefer a more diplomatic approach, so as not to irritate North Korea.

Because of this, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who must deal with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, is apparently having a hard time trying to mediate between the two groups of officials.

The Washington Post wrote, "On Friday, Glyn Davies, the principal deputy assistant secretary in the East Asia bureau, sent an e-mail to Erica Barks-Ruggles, a deputy assistant secretary in the DRL bureau, regarding some changes in the introductory language of a report on North Korea."

According to the newspaper, Davies said in the e-mail, "I know you are under the NSC [National Security Council] gun," apparently to get the report done so the NSC can review it, "but hope given the Secretary's priority on the six-party talks, we can sacrifice a few adjectives for the cause."

As a result, the words "the repressive North Korean regime" in a draft report were replaced with "the North Korean government," and the sentence "Reports of public executions were on the rise" was replaced with "Reports of public executions continued to surface," the newspaper wrote.

(englishnews@chosun.com )