Hope of accord fading as North Korea talks hit day 11

BEIJING - Gruelling six-party talks aimed at defusing a crisis over North Korea's nuclear ambitions have entered an 11th day, but a joint communique may prove elusive with the North insisting on the right to peaceful nuclear programmes.

Three previous rounds of talks failed to end the three-year-old crisis, and negotiators from the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and host nation China faced the prospect of another abortive outcome in round four.

North Korea's negotiator Kim Kye-gwan said his country was committed to denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula but gave no sign of budging on US demands that it scrap all its nuclear programmes.

"All countries in the world have the right to peaceful nuclear activities," Kim said.

A fourth round without agreement would call the entire talks process into question -- an outcome which could prompt the US to take the issue to the UN Security Council.

That option has been opposed by China, the North's closest ally. China, which fought alongside the North against the US and the South during the 1950-1953 Korean War and now is concerned about the prospect of instability on its northeastern border. The North has denounced the possibility of UN sanctions as tantamount to war.

The spotlight is on the North's negotiators, who continue to refuse to sign up to even the barest statement of principle. Chinese officials have put forward multiple drafts, the latest two-pages long, to no avail.

"We cannot have a situation where the DPRK pretends to abandon its nuclear programmes and we pretend to believe them," US negotiator Christopher Hill said.

"We need to have a situation where we know precisely what they have agreed to do, what they have agreed to abandon so we can precisely react to that."

Later in the day, the US position had not changed, with Hill saying: "We do need clarity."

North Korea is demanding energy aid, security guarantees and diplomatic recognition in return for scrapping its nuclear programmes. The US has insisted the programmes are jettisoned before concessions flow to the impoverished, reclusive state.

Intelligence experts estimate the North Koreans have stockpiled enough plutonium for up to nine nuclear weapons.

A Japanese delegation source has said the talks could go into the weekend.

The crisis erupted in October 2002 when the US confronted the state with evidence it was violating international protocol by pursuing a clandestine uranium enrichment weapons programme.

The North Koreans responded by throwing out UN weapons inspectors, abandoning the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and restarting their mothballed Yongbyon reactor.

It upped the stakes in February, announcing it now had nuclear weapons and demanding aid, assurances and diplomatic recognition from the US in return for scrapping them.

- REUTERS