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US sees no breakthrough in NKorea nuclear talks
GENEVA
Petroleumworld.com, Mar 14, 2008
North Korean and US negotiators failed to reach any breakthrough in talks on Pyongyang's nuclear programme and do not plan to resume negotiations Friday, the chief US negotiator said.
"It was good consultations but we are not there yet," Christopher Hill told journalists late Thursday outside the US mission in Geneva after meeting his North Korean counterpart Kim Kye-gwan.
"We are going to report to our capitals," he said, adding there are no plans for now to continue the talks on Friday.
Earlier in the day, Hill had hinted the talks might be extended, but by late evening he simply said: "We had a long day of discussions, (and) we are in a better position now than when we arrived."
The two sides talked about a host of sensitive issues including uranium enrichment and humanitarian assistance, he added.
North Korea last year signed a landmark deal to abandon all its nuclear weapons in exchange for badly needed energy and economic aid and major security and diplomatic benefits.
But the process -- involving China, Japan, both Koreas, Russia and the United States -- has been stalled since North Korea missed an end-2007 deadline to declare all its nuclear programmes and disable its plutonium plant.
Hill insisted earlier that Washington needed a full and frank declaration, and that verbal assurances would not suffice.
We cannot be flexible on the fact that we need a complete and correct declaration," Hill said.
At stake is a US call for North Korea to clarify its suspected uranium enrichment programme (UEP) and secret nuclear technology transfers to Syria -- both of which are denied by Pyongyang.
Story from AFP
AFP 13 2327 GMT 03 08Copyright© 2008 respective author or news agency. All rights reserved.
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