North Korea sets terms for nuclear halt - Yonhap

BEIJING, Nov 29 (Reuters) North Korea wants sanctions dropped and the United States to free its overseas bank accounts as preconditions for dismantling its nuclear programme, a news agency said today, terms likely to become a sticking point in negotiations.

North Korean envoy Kim Kye-gwan made the demands in meetings in Beijing yesterday with representatives of other countries in six-party talks on ending the North's nuclear weapons programme, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said, citing a source in Beijing.

North Korea agreed to return to the talks -- which involve South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States -- after its first nuclear test last month triggered UN-backed sanctions.

US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill was still in preparatory talks today afternoon, a US Embassy spokeswoman said.

''Hill is still in meetings,'' the spokeswoman said. ''Hill will not leave Beijing tonight.'' It was unclear if there had been any progress.

A proposed trip to Seoul for today night was cancelled to give him time for the Beijing talks, a South Korean government official said.

US officials have said they want North Korea, without condition, to stand by last year's agreement in which it said it was committed ''to abandoning all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programmes''. In return, the other nations held out economic, political and security incentives.

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