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U.S. says problems ahead in North Korea talks
Wed Dec 10, 2008 1:44am EST
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By Ben Blanchard
BEIJING (Reuters) - The U.S. delegate to talks aimed at the nuclear disarmament of North Korea said problems lay ahead as negotiators on Wednesday discussed rules about verifying the reclusive state's nuclear activities.
North Korea, which tested a nuclear bomb in 2006, partly disabled its Yongbyon nuclear complex this year in a disarmament-for-aid deal, but the six-party disarmament talks have failed to agree on a protocol to check the North's declaration of nuclear activities.
Chief U.S. delegate Christopher Hill said all sides -- North and South Korea, China, the United States, Japan and Russia -- had to see what the reaction was to a draft text offered by China that outlined a way to verify nuclear information.
"I think the key thing is to figure out whether this is a draft that everyone can work on or not," Hill told reporters.
Asked if a consensus had been reached on taking nuclear samples from North Korea, or verifying that Pyongyang was abiding by its agreements, he said: "I'm not aware that there's anything that could be defined as no longer a problem."
Japan's top government spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura, was similarly downbeat.
"We cannot have preconceptions about what will happen at the six-party talks currently being held in Beijing," he told reporters in Tokyo.
Any progress at the negotiations in Beijing, which have stretched over the years, would be a diplomatic trophy for outgoing U.S. President George W. Bush, weeks before President-elect Barack Obama takes office.
The most contention has centered on the North's reluctance to allow international inspectors to take nuclear samples out of the country for testing. Two South Korean newspapers -- the Dong-a Ilbo and the JoongAng Ilbo -- said in unsourced reports that the talks were approaching a compromise over the issue.
NORTH KOREA IN NO RUSH
But many analysts believe North Korea is in no hurry to make concessions, waiting to test Obama's intentions. A South Korean expert on North Korea said Pyongyang was unlikely to make real concessions on verification any time soon.
"North Korea will never allow sampling in the second-phase process because it is a bargaining chip it wants to hold on to until the last moment of the talks," said Koh Yu-hwan of Dongguk University.
"It is putting all its efforts into better positioning itself at the negotiating table so that it would still have something to use as a leverage in the final phase of the talks."
In a sign of North Korea's combativeness, its official KCNA news agency on Wednesday trumpeted a U.S. military report that called it a nuclear arms state.
Regional powers refuse to officially designate the North as a nuclear power, and South Korea's foreign minister has said the U.S. report was mistaken and will be corrected. But Pyongyang has longed for the prestige that goes with such a designation. Continued...
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