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According to US envoy Christopher Hill, extended consultations with different parties would come before six-party talks that aim to get North Korea to account for and abandon its nuclear plans in exchange for aid and recognition would be concluded. -- PHOTO: AP
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GENEVA - US officials will extend talks in Geneva with North Korea over nuclear disarmament, US envoy Christopher Hill said on Friday, saying considerable work was still needed before resuming six-party negotiations.
'It was a very good meeting,' he told reporters. Mr Hill will leave Geneva on Friday but hand over the bilateral discussions to Sung Kim, the State Department's head of Korean affairs, in an effort to progress toward multilateral talks, he said.
'I think there might be another need for a consultation but frankly we'll all have to do a number of consultations with different parties before we have a six-party meeting.'
China chairs six-party talks that include North and South Korea, the United States, Russia and Japan and that aim to get North Korea to account for and abandon its nuclear plans in exchange for aid and recognition.
The United States said on Thursday it wanted to see faster progress in negotiations on North Korea's nuclear activities after a day of talks in Geneva with the secretive communist state.
There has been significant progress in disabling Yongbyon but North Korea has slowed down the process in recent months, arguing the others have delayed keeping their end of the deal.
North Korea agreed to abandon its nuclear programme under a 2005 agreement but the deal has been stalled by Pyongyang's failure to produce a detailed declaration of its nuclear programmes by the end of last year.
Under the so-called second phase of the denuclearisation deal, North Korea committed to disable its nuclear facility at Yongbyon, where it has produced plutonium, and to make the declaration.
In return, the other parties to the accord reached among the two Koreas, China, Japan and the United States agreed to provide up to 1 million tonnes of heavy fuel oil or its equivalent.
Washington wants North Korea to give up its atomic activities, any weapons and related materials before US President George W. Bush leaves office next January.
Its demands for full disclosure have clashed with Pyongyang's reluctance to discuss any transfers of nuclear technology to other nations, notably Syria, as well as its suspected pursuit of uranium enrichment. -- REUTERS
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