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Stage set for North Korea talks
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- Reuters
- Published: 23:46 December 5, 2008
Singapore: Top US nuclear envoy Christopher Hill said on Friday he expects difficult six-party talks next week on North Korea's nuclear disarmament and that more work needs to be done to iron out verification details.
"I can just tell you that I'm sure the negotiations, when we do sit down to negotiate in Beijing, I'm sure the negotiations will be as usual, difficult," Hill told reporters after meeting North Korean nuclear diplomat Kim Kye-gwan in Singapore.
Two days of meetings in Singapore were held to set the tone for the talks next week in Beijing, one of the Bush administration's last chances to make progress on an initial disarmament deal with North Korea before President-elect Barack Obama takes office in January.
There had been concern that the Beijing discussions might not proceed, but Kim said he saw no reason they should not go ahead.
"There hasn't been official announcement, but we have no objections," he told reporters.
Aid
Under the disarmament agreement, Pyongyang has been offered fuel oil and other aid, as well as greater diplomatic standing, in return for shutting a key nuclear installation and handing over a list of its atomic activities.
Kim said the North Koreans were still waiting on fuel deliveries agreed to under the disarmament deal.
"There are still 450,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil remaining [to be sent to the North]. When it all arrives, disablement will be complete, and we have finished preparations for that," he said.
Many stumbling blocks have held up the disarmament agreement struck during stop-start negotiations between North and South Korea, China, the United States, Japan and Russia.
The latest impediment is the North's reluctance to allow international inspectors to take nuclear samples out of the country for testing. Washington maintains that Pyongyang is obliged to allow such tests by understandings reached in October.
Kim said more discussions needed to be held on how the sampling would be conducted.
"The question of sampling has to do with methodology, and we will continue discussions," he said.
Committed
Hill said North Korea reaffirmed their commitment to the October agreement but that the differences had arisen over how to express it on paper.
"We had an in-depth discussion, talked a lot about the verification issues today," Hill said. "Scientific procedures they have agreed to and we have an understanding from them on what it means, the question is how much of that they are willing to put on paper in advance," he said.
Pyongyang carried out a nuclear blast in October 2006, alarming the region and galvanising the six-party negotiations that began in Beijing in 2003.
Hill is expected to hold meetings in Seoul today, before heading to Beijing on tomorrow.
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