Japan tells of disagreement at North Korea talks

BEIJING, July 19 (Reuters) Envoys seeking to end North Korea's nuclear arms ambitions decided to extend talks till tomorrow as differences emerged on the next steps towards disabling the North's atomic facilities, a Japanese delegate said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency announced yesterday that North Korea had now shut five main nuclear facilities at Yongbyon.

They include a reactor and an atomic fuel reprocessing plant that can extract the plutonium Pyongyang used for its first nuclear test blast last October.

Six-party talks in Beijing are aiming to set a date for completing the second phase of the disarmament deal -- permanently disabling the Yongbyon complex and receiving a full declaration of North Korea's nuclear arms activities.

''We had more thorough discussions on the next-phase measures at today's talks,'' Japan's chief negotiator, Kenichiro Sasae, told reporters. ''There are points that can be agreed on, but there are also points that cannot be agreed on.

''North Korea presented its views on how to proceed in a more frank fashion ... From our standpoint, of course, not all of them are acceptable.'' South Korean envoy Chun Yung-woo told reporters no one had expected a full settlement at the current round of talks.

''It may be hard to agree on deadline for a complete North Korean nuclear shutdown at the current round,'' Kyodo news agency quoted him as saying.

Some negotiators earlier were hopeful of a deal, possibly setting the end of 2007 as a deadline. But a Japanese diplomat said the talks would spill over into tomorrow.

Chief US envoy Christopher Hill appeared upbeat before he left for today's negotiations.

''I think there is a feeling that there is a consensus among the six as to the sort of target timeframe for completing these tasks,'' Hill told reporters.

He said earlier any statement was likely to be a ''broad framework'' with ''precise benchmarks'' to be settled later. He declined to say whether North Korea had agreed to the end-of-year deadline.

The talks have brought together North and South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia and China since 2003, but concrete progress had eluded them.

However, in February, North Korea agreed to close Yongbyon in return for an initial 50,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil.

Shipments of the fuel oil began last week from South Korea.

The South would send a third shipment of heavy fuel oil on Friday, an official in Seoul told reporters.

Under phase two of the February agreement, the North is to receive an additional 950,000 tonnes of fuel oil in return for disabling its atomic facilities and coming clean on its nuclear secrets.

Reuters ARB GC1707