Annan backs six-party North Korea nuclear talks

Seoul, May 16: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan today urged the resumption of multilateral talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear programmes, saying it offered the best chance of resolving the standoff.

''Secretary-General Annan said he supported the six-party talks to resolve the North Korean nuclear problem and hoped it would resume at an early time,'' South Korean presidential spokesman Chung Tae-ho quoted Annan as saying during a visit to the country.

Annan met South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun today and also discussed Seoul's efforts to encourage Pyongyang to open up to the world and reform, Chung said in a statement.

North Korea said last year it had nuclear weapons, and satellite photos released this week showed signs of new activity at the country's main nuclear complex in Yongbyon.

The six-party talks -- involving South and North Koreas, the United States, Japan, China and Russia -- have hit a snag over a US crackdown on firms it suspects of aiding the North in illicit activities and have been deadlocked since November.

Washington restored full diplomatic ties with Libya yesterday, rewarding a longtime foe for scrapping its weapons of mass destruction programmes and signalling incentives for Iran and North Korea if they do the same. Tripoli declared in December 2003 it was abandoning its weapons programmes.

South Korea had hoped that high-level bilateral military talks with the North starting today could focus on reopening railway links across the heavily militarised border, which are physically near completion but remain held up because of reluctance by Pyongyang's military.

But North Korean delegates led by Lieutenant General Kim Yong-chol rejected talks on the railway and instead wanted negotiations on redrawing a disputed maritime border in the Yellow Sea, pool reports from the talks said.

The talks at the Panmunjom truce village are due to run until Thursday.

South and North Korea remain technically at war under a truce that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

REUTERS