No progress on nuke talks

2005-08-06 20:49

Beijing - Envoys to deadlocked North Korean nuclear talks said on Saturday they might take a recess, but they planned to gather for one more day to discuss the effort to persuade the North to disarm.

Negotiators from the United States, North Korea and four other nations held a 12th straight day of talks on Saturday but reported no progress on a planned statement of principles to guide future negotiations.

"We are talking about the possibility of a recess. We are going to have another meeting tomorrow," Japan's chief envoy, Kenichiro Sasae, told reporters. He didn't say how long a recess might last.

China said the delegation leaders would meet again on Sunday morning.

Russia's delegate, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alexeyev, was quoted by China's official Xinhua News Agency as saying they would take a two-week break if that meeting fails to produce a statement.

The US envoy, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, wouldn't say whether there would be a recess. But he said there was little progress at a meeting on Saturday with the North Korean delegation.

Diplomats say the talks are stalemated over the North's insistence on retaining a peaceful nuclear programme, and over what Pyongyang would get if it renounces atomic weapons.

"The DPRK still has the view that the other five countries, frankly speaking, do not share," Hill said, referring to North Korea by the initials of its formal name.

He said the meeting focused on the parties understanding each other's positions.

"The purpose of the meeting was to make sure, make absolutely sure, that we understood what their position is and what our position is," Hill said. "In that regard, I thought it was a very, very good meeting."

Hill had said on Friday that a recess might be an option to let diplomats return to their home countries and review their work.

But he warned that they needed to make preparations to ensure that any diplomatic gains this week were "locked in", so that talks wouldn't need to start from scratch when they met again.

- AP