US, N Korea hold 'good' talks

2005-07-26 19:02

Beijing - The United States and North Korea held a "good" and "businesslike" bilateral meeting on Tuesday, but it would still take a long time for issues to be settled between the two rivals, said a top US negotiator.

Christopher Hill, US assistant secretary of state for East Asia-Pacific affairs, said the two sides had "good discussions" on the first day of six-party talks to address the North's nuclear weapons programmes.

He said: "Everyone had the opportunity to put their issues on the table, but this may take a little longer than you would want and I want.

Plutonium, uranium weapons

He said: "It was businesslike, we avoided any rhetoric. It was an effort to get all the issues on the table, to make sure we knew what was important to each of us, so it was positive in that sense."

Hill said the two sides also discussed the US proposal that was put forward last June, which required North Korea to give an up-front pledge to dismantle all its plutonium and uranium weapons programmes before receiving any energy and other assistance.

North Korea rejected the US offer at the time and, instead, wanted a step-by-step approach to weaning itself off its nuclear programmes.

He said: "We talked about the June proposal, talked about the sequence of the proposal, the importance they attach to the sequence, where they don't want to have to have obligations ahead of other people's obligations."

'Sequencing of issues'

But, he declined to elaborate further on the discussion or the response he received from their negotiators.

"I don't want to characterise their response, except that obviously there is this concern about the sequence of issues, I don't want to call it positive or negative."

Hill did not mention how long the meeting lasted, but a South Korean official said the meeting had lasted "long hours".

On Monday, the US met with the North to work out procedures on the negotiations concerning the abandonment of Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programmes.

- AFP