US: No more bargaining with N. Korea on nukes

CHINA: The United States will not bargain any more with North Korea over its nuclear weapons drive, the top US envoy said Monday as six-nation talks hung in the balance on a final day of negotiations.

Christopher Hill and his counterparts from Japan and South Korea said the success or failure of the talks in Beijing depended on the final response from North Korean negotiator Kim Kye-Gwan.

"I think we have put everything on the table. We offered a way forward on a number of issues," Hill told reporters here.

"They (North Koreans) just have to make a decision. I don't think we are going to do any more bargaining."

Hill said Monday would be the final day of talks, which had begun Thursday on an optimistic note with host China presenting a proposal for North Korea to take initial steps toward disarmament in return for economic incentives.

"It is the last day. The Chinese announced this to us and I was the first to second the motion," Hill said as he and his fellow envoys from China, the two Koreas, Japan and Russia prepared to meet again at a state guesthouse one final time.

The draft accord put forward by China outlined measures North Korea could take to begin disarming in return for energy aid and other economic incentives.

While envoys have not given any specifics of the accord, press reports have said it would commit North Korea to closing its five-megawatt nuclear reactor at Yongbyon and other atomic facilities within two months.

But the North Korea, apparently emboldened by its first-ever nuclear test in October last year, has demanded two million tonnes of fuel oil as part of a package of inducements, Japanese press have reported.

That would be four times as much fuel oil as offered under a now-defunct 1994 disarmament deal.

Beijing, Monday, AFP