North Korea nuclear talks struggle with statement

BEIJING - Tortuous six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear crisis entered a sixth day on Sunday, with negotiators struggling to thrash out a joint statement of principles that has eluded them for nearly three years.

Despite an unprecedented flurry of one-to-one meetings in recent days, the main protagonists, Washington and Pyongyang, still appeared far apart on the critical issue of how and when the North's nuclear weapons programs should be dismantled.

Diplomats stressed that progress at the talks, with no end date set, would be slow. They had spent Saturday afternoon reviewing a draft statement put forward by China, which is hosting the forum.

Chief negotiators from the two Koreas, China, the United States, Russia and Japan left it to deputies on Sunday to haggle over the text with the aim of producing a joint document that all parties could sign. No one believed the final draft would contain much in the way of ground-breaking commitments.

"I think in our view, the Chinese text represents a good basis for further negotiations and further discussion," US chief negotiator Christopher Hill said late on Saturday.

But he added: "It's hard to tell about progress until you actually have an agreement." He gave no details of the document or say when the final text would be produced.

The North Korean delegation, which in the past has abruptly called news conferences to denounce hostile US policy, has kept quiet so far during this fourth round, which opened on Tuesday.

Japan, meanwhile, appeared determined to include the issue of North Korea's abduction of its nationals in the document, a move analysts said could anger Pyongyang and undermine any agreement.

"We will do our best to have our position and arguments reflected on the document," Japanese chief negotiator Akitaka Saiki told reporters on Sunday.

Having any statement at all agreed by the six parties would mark a breakthrough for the Beijing talks where past progress has been measured by whether they could agree even to reconvene.

CHICKEN-AND-EGG DEBATE

Everything turns on what the negotiators call sequencing, the chicken-and-egg debate on which steps should come first.

North Korea wants aid, security assurances and diplomatic recognition and an end to US hostility before starting to take apart its nuclear programs. The United States wants it the other way round.

Washington also demands full and verifiable destruction of Pyongyang's weapons programs, which intelligence sources say have produced enough enriched plutonium for up to nine nuclear bombs, before any aid or guarantees materialise.

After a hiatus of more than a year, this fourth round of talks since the crisis erupted in October 2002 has been marked by unprecedented bilateral contact between Washington and Pyongyang.

The two protagonists have held six meetings in as many days lasting anywhere from 75 minutes to three hours, and sought to outline clearly their stances and differences. In the past such encounters were rare, brief and adhered to pre-written scripts.

A breakthrough on a statement could come on Monday. "It is not impossible to finalise the joint document on Monday. But it may take longer," a diplomatic source close to the talks said.

The atmosphere has been far more cordial than in the early days of the administration of George W. Bush, when the president labelled North Korea part of an "axis of evil" alongside Iran and pre-war Iraq, or even early this year when his secretary of state called Pyongyang an "outpost of tyranny."

For its part, the North Korean delegation, which in the past has called rapidly scheduled news conferences to denounce hostile US policy, has kept quiet.

Pyongyang's state-run Korean Central News Agency, which has been known to fire rhetorical broadsides at Washington during past rounds, has focused most of its ire on Japan, its hated former colonial master.

- REUTERS