US says North Korea efforts at crucial stage

WASHINGTON - Efforts to revive negotiations with North Korea are in a "crucial phase" and the United States hopes Pyongyang will respond within the next six weeks, chief US negotiator Chris Hill has said.

Hill did not outline what would happen at the end of that period nor call it a deadline but told a conference sponsored by the Centre for Strategic and International studies "there is a certain sense of urgency" about breaking a logjam in six-country talks that have been stalled for nearly a year.

And in a recent interview, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said Washington and Seoul agreed to "develop a common and broad approach to energize this historic six-party process."

For nearly a year, the North has boycotted six-country talks with the United States, South Korea, Japan, Russia and China aimed at persuading Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons programme.

The United States, which first imposed sanctions on the North decades ago, recently began cracking down on banks facilitating Pyongyang's counterfeiting and money-laundering activities. The North refuses to return to negotiations until these financial curbs are lifted.

In July, the North tested seven missiles, and there are signs the communist state is preparing its first underground nuclear test, which could shake Asia even more.

At the conference, Hill pleaded for the North to come back to the table, stressing the administration was making preparations for new negotiations by ironing out details on key proposals, such as how peace "mechanism" replacing the 1953 Korean War armistice would be structured.

- REUTERS