N Korea fuel aid halted

2008-12-13 08:50

Fukuoka - The United States said energy aid to North Korea had been suspended, and the leaders of Japan and South Korea condemned Pyongyang for being uncooperative at this week's failed multilateral nuclear talks.

State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack said all five countries negotiating with North Korea - Japan, Russia, China, the United States and South Korea - had agreed that future fuel shipments would not go forward until there was progress on a so-called verification protocol with Pyongyang.

"This is an action-for-action process," McCormack told reporters in Washington. "Future fuel shipments aren't going to move forward absent a verification regime ... they (the North Koreans) understand that."

Multilateral talks in Beijing with North Korea failed on Thursday to break an impasse on checking Pyongyang's nuclear declarations, scuppering the Bush administration's hopes for a diplomatic success before it hands over to President-elect Barack Obama on January 20.

North Korea has been in negotiations with the United States over its nuclear arms programme for more than a decade and the issue took on extra urgency after Pyongyang held its first nuclear test explosion in October 2006.

Two months ago, the Bush administration said it would remove North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, based on Pyongyang's oral commitment to a verification plan.

Experts believe Pyongyang is holding out on a verification protocol until the Obama administration takes over next month.

Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak condemned Pyongyang for its uncooperative stance in the talks in Beijing.

Aso and Lee met in southern Japan on Saturday ahead of a rare trilateral summit with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at which the global financial crisis that is battering their economies will top the agenda.

"Both leaders from the two countries expressed their regret that North Korea showed an uncooperative attitude toward joint efforts by the other participating countries (in the talks)," South Korea's presidential office said in a statement.

A subsequent statement issued after talks between Lee and Wen was less critical of the North, saying only that the two leaders had expressed regret that the talks failed to produce an agreement.

- Reuters