US envoy Hill says N Korean response "discouraging"

BEIJING, July 12 (Reuters) US diplomat Christopher Hill today said North Korea's response to Chinese diplomacy to defuse a missile crisis was ''discouraging'' but Beijing's efforts would continue.

Hill told reporters that bilateral talks between Washington and Pyongyang were not an option and that six-party talks involving the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and China were the only way to go.

''It remains very unclear whether the DPRK (North Korea) is interested'' in resuming six-party talks on its nuclear programme, Hill told reporters.

''If they want international isolation, that is precisesly what they are going to get... We have no interest in turning this into a bilateral process.

''The North Koreans are at times very proud of being alone in the world,'' Hill said, adding that China and the United States shared a ''sense of common purpose'' on North Korea.

''It is clear to me that China is working very hard and taking its responsibilities very, very seriously... We don't have any signs that the DPRK attaches the same importance'' to the six-party talks, he added.

REUTERS SY DS1310