US says NKorea atomic talks 'business-like'

Shenyang (China), Aug 16: The US envoy to talks on how North Korea will go about scrapping its nuclear weapons programme said today he was hopeful of agreement in coming weeks after a ''business-like'' first day of a two-day meeting.

Last month, North Korea shut its Yongbyon reactor complex that produces weapons-grade plutonium in return for 50,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil under a Feb. 13 deal struck by North and South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.

The latest talks, involving working groups, were designed to tackle the technical details of how communist North Korea must disable atomic facilities and declare all its nuclear activities and materials.

The discussions in Shenyang, capital of China's northeast Liaoning province, were being held in preparation for fuller talks between the six countries that are due to be held soon.

The chief US negotiator, Assistant Secretary of State Chris Hill, said US and North Korean experts had laid out their views on what disablement of the nuclear arms programme and a declaration of the North's activities would entail.

''I think it is very business-like and we are hopeful this can get us to an agreement when the six-party plenary meets at the end of August or beginning of September,'' he told reporters.

If it carries out agreed steps, North Korea will receive 950,000 more tonnes of heavy fuel oil or equivalent aid and secure the prospect of improved ties with the United States and Japan.

But the fine print of what disablement means and what North Korea must disclose holds potential pitfalls that could frustrate or even derail the February deal.

''Most of our meeting has to do with disablement and to try to see if we can come up with some common definitions of disablement. As you can imagine, there are many ways to disable a nuclear programme,'' said Hill.

Reuters>