Korea extends nuclear talks

2005-05-18 14:26

Seoul - South and North Korea on Wednesday extended senior-level talks about the North's nuclear programme after a two-day meeting ended in a stalemate on whether Pyongyang would return to six-way negotiations.

The talks, which were scheduled to end on Tuesday, continued into early on Wednesday, but made no breakthrough. The talks would resume on Thursday.

Rhee Bong-Jo, Seoul's chief delegate, said: "We concluded today's talks and plan to wrap up consultations tomorrow."

According to pool reports, Bong-Jo was speaking after the talks held overnight in the North Korean town of Kaesong overnight.

According to Seoul officials the talks got bogged down after North Korea sidestepped a new proposal from South Korea to jump-start the six-nation negotiations.

Seoul's position to govt agencies

Rhee on Monday made what he described as an "important offer" to entice North Korea back to the talks, but received no word in reply as the two-day session drew to a close.

North Korean delegates on Tuesday continued to snub the South Korea call, reiterating that they would pass Seoul's position to government agencies.

The South Korean team led by Rhee headed back to Seoul for consultations with the government ahead of Thursday's talks.

The vice-ministerial talks were the first high-level face-to-face dialogue held in 10 months between the two sides of the divided peninsula.

Washington warned on Monday that Pyongyang would pay the price for a further escalation on the nuclear issue.

North Korea said in February that it possessed nuclear weapons. Last week, it said that it had unloaded spent fuel rods from its reactor, a step that would allow it to make more weapons-grade plutonium.

- AFP