US envoy says no progress in NKorea talks yet

BEIJING, Dec 19: The top US negotiator in thorny nuclear disarmament talks with North Korea today said there had been no progress in the first day of talks and appeared downbeat about prospects for the rest of the week.

''I think I would be hard pressed to say any progress was made,'' US Assistant Secretary of State Chris Hill said before leaving his Beijing hotel for a second day of negotiations on scrapping the communist state's nuclear arms programme.

''It's not an easy week to make progress,'' he told reporters, adding, ''We're not going to live with their nuclear weapons''.

Yesterday's opening meeting of envoys from the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia was the first of its kind in more than a year, and was held under the shadow of Pyongyang's first atomic test, which it conducted on October 9.

North Korea's envoy Kim Kye-gwan spelled out at that session sweeping demands in return for scrapping its nuclear weapons, starting with the lifting of UN sanctions and US financial curbs and a new nuclear reactor.

A separate US Treasury Department delegation is expected to meet the North Koreans to discuss the financial standoff later in the day.

Washington, along with host China, South Korea, Japan and Russia, want to see North Korea move towards implementing a joint statement agreed in September 2005. At that time, North Korea agreed in principle to give up nuclear weapons in return for aid and security guarantees.

But North Korea's Kim said his country would not consider acting on the agreement until US curbs on its external financing and UN sanctions were lifted.

Washington imposed the financial curbs over a year ago after determining that Pyongyang was engaged in money-laundering and counterfeiting American currency. The UN authorised sanctions in October after condemning the North's nuclear test.

REUTERS