Envoys seek consensus at North Korea talks in China

BEIJING, July 20 (Reuters) - Six-party talks to end North Korea's nuclear arms ambitions enter a third day today after envoys settled on a set of tasks the United States said could be carried out this year, rather than a disarmament timetable.

Envoys were seeking consensus on the second stage of disarmament -- permanently disabling the Yongbyon nuclear complex and receiving a full declaration of Pyongyang's atomic arms activities in return for heavy fuel oil shipments.

They broadly agreed yesterday on how that next phase will unfold but did not agree on a deadline. At the start of the latest round of talks on Wednesday, chief U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill had proposed completing the steps by the end of the year.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said on Wednesday North Korea had now shut five main nuclear facilities at Yongbyon, completing the first stage of a disarmament deal reached in February.

The facilities included a reactor and an atomic fuel reprocessing plant that can extract the plutonium that Pyongyang used for its first nuclear test blast last year.

The talks have brought together North and South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia and China since 2003.

Concrete progress eluded them until February when North Korea agreed to close Yongbyon in return for an initial 50,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil, which began moving there from South Korea last week.

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

South Korea on Friday began sending 50,000 tonnes of rice aid overland to its neighbour, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said.

Pyongyang quit the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty after throwing out nuclear inspectors in late 2002.

The first phase of the February agreement was delayed for many weeks by a snarl-up over bank funds North Korea demanded it receive from a Macau bank before shutting Yongbyon.

In an unrelated development, North Korea will ask the United Nations to take up its complaint over what it calls a ''fascist search'' of a pro-North Korean group in Tokyo. Japan has denied allegations of discrimination targeting Koreans in Japan.

Reuters DH VP0730