North Korean delegate says no need for more nuke talks

BEIJING - A North Korean delegate to just-concluded six-way nuclear talks in Beijing said on Saturday he saw no need for further discussions despite an agreement by negotiators to meet again, but analysts dismissed the threat as posturing.

US Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly had told reporters earlier in the day the talks were productive but there was a long way to go before the crisis was defused.

"We had a nice visit and a productive start. We have a long way to travel and don't know when we will be back here or whether it will be somewhere else," Kelly said. "But a peaceful solution is something we are going to work on."

The three-day talks ended on Friday with no major breakthrough, but the two Koreas, the United States, Russia, Japan and host China agreed to meet again within two months. No place or date was set.

But the North Korean delegate told reporters at the airport further talks were not necessary.

"There's no need to hold this kind of talks," the grim-looking delegate, whose identity was unknown, said. "We're no longer interested. Our expectations have diminished."

"We have concluded that the United States has no intention to switch policy but is trying to disarm (us) by using tricks," he said. "We have no other choice."

The head of the North Korean delegation, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Yong-il, did not make any comments and looked solemn, in stark contrast to his arrival on Tuesday when he smiled, waved at reporters and clasped his hands above his head.

Pyongyang has frequently used bluster when discussing its nuclear capabilities and analysts dismissed this latest threat as similar rhetoric.

"The contradiction is a manoeuvre and consistent with North Korea's pattern of behaviour in the past," said Shi Yinhong, an expert on international relations at the People's University in Beijing.

Paik Hak-soon, a senior researcher at South Korea's Sejong Institute, added: "They're acting strategically to strengthen their starting position for the next round of negotiations."

"It's a message to the United States, a reminder that the North still has a card up its sleeves -- nuclear development."

The crisis erupted last October when the United States said North Korea had admitted to a nuclear arms programme. It deepened after the isolated North threw out UN inspectors, pulled out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and took its nuclear plant out of mothballs.

Japan's Kyodo news agency quoted a source with close ties to North Korea as saying the statement by the delegate should not be interpreted too literally.

Asked if the comments meant North Korea would not take part in future talks, the source was quoted as saying: "It didn't refer to the issue of the next round of talks. It would be better not to blow it out of proportion."

Pyongyang took a parting swipe at the United States on Friday, likening Washington to a "brigand" determined to disarm and then invade North Korea.

Washington has branded reclusive Pyongyang part of an "axis of evil" along with pre-war Iraq and Iran. The Bush administration says it is committed to a peaceful resolution, but hawks in the United States favour regime change.

"The lack of credibility on both sides is a very serious obstacle" to defusing the nuclear crisis, said Shi, the Chinese academic.

Nonetheless, South Korea's national security chief Ra Jong-yil had earlier been upbeat.

"We could expect the outlook for the next round of talks to be positive," Ra told domestic SBS radio. "I'm confident."

Ra brushed off foreign media reports over North Korea declaring it possessed nuclear weapons. "That's just a repeat of its stance that it has no other choice but to go nuclear in case of no security guarantee," he said.

"That's not revealing its will to carry out a nuclear test."

US officials have said North Korea raised the rhetoric on Thursday by talking about carrying out a test and saying it could declare itself a nuclear power.

- REUTERS