CHINA: An agreement proves elusive at North Korea nuclear talks in Beijing

There is still no sign of agreement on the fourth day of North Korean nuclear talks taking place in Beijing. Delegates are stumbling over one main issue regarding Pyongyang's demands for energy compensation should it disarm, but are still not revealing the particulars of the dispute. U.S. envoy Christopher Hill says talks should come to an end tomorrow. Envoys to six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons programme ended a fourth day of haggling without agreement on Sunday (February 11) - bogged down on Pyongyang's demands for energy compensation should it disarm. Negotiators from North and South Korea, the United States, Russia, Japan and host China have agreed on most of a plan that would oblige Pyongyang to shut down nuclear activities in return for economic and security assurances. "Disagreements on contentious issues are narrowing, but we are trying to get them to narrow further. A breakthrough is not in sight. We will have to hold more discussions tomorrow," South Korean envoy Chun Yung-woo told reporters after coming out of the day's meetings. "(The discussions) are about the scope of the corresponding measures and the scope, pace and range of the North's actions to de-nuclearise," said Chun. A diplomatic source said North Korea had demanded the United States and four other countries provide it with two million tonnes of heavy fuel oil annually and two million kilowatts of electricity in exchange for scrapping its nuclear arms programmes. Another diplomatic source said the North had asked for either the heavy fuel or the electricity aid, not both. Japan's envoy said talks were still at a crisis point, but tomorrow would bring clearer direction. "The situation is still severe, and it will become clearer tomorrow in which direction we will be heading. I think consultations will continue tomorrow," said Japan's envoy Kenichiro Sasae. Sasae said the day's talks had been tense and necessitated a break. "The break we took between talks (was because) tension had risen during consultations," said Sasae. United States envoy Christopher Hill told reporters that the United States was not prepared to provide energy as a substitute for de-nuclearisation and suggested North Korea's demands would allow it to avoid complete disarmament. "Our goal is to achieve what we set out in the September '05 statement. Our goal is a complete denuclearisation. Now, we understand you can't just get there in one jump, you have to take several steps. So we are prepared to take several steps, we are prepared to help the DPRK (North Korea) along the way, especially in economic and energy terms. But we are not interested in providing that kind of assistance so that they don't have to take the next step. It is very important that they continue the steps and finally to get out of this nuclear business - what I do believe has really caused great harm to their economy, and has created a situation of insecurity and isolation," Hill told reporters waiting in his hotel lobby. "What we are looking for is to get them to shut things down, and finally dismantle them and abandon them. So we are not satisfied with stopping at some intermediate step," he added. Delegates were due to meet for a final session at 0200 GMT on Monday (February 12). Hill said there was no question of giving up on negotiations. "A diplomatic process certainly would be dealt a significant setback. It doesn't mean we are not going to deal with this issue. I have said many times that we have a lot of options of dealing with this issue, we just don't have the option of walking away from it," said Hill. The five nations involved in the negotiations with Pyongyang have urged it to end nuclear weapons ambitions that culminated in its first atomic test blast in October.

ITN Source | February 12, 2007

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