Diplomats hopeful ahead of US-North Korea talks

GENEVA, Aug 31 (Reuters) A top US diplomat said today weekend talks between the United States and North Korea may signal whether the push to end Pyongyang's nuclear programmes was beginning to gather speed.

US Assistant Secretary of State Chris Hill said the talks in Geneva, aimed at normalising relations between the countries which fought each other in the 1950-53 Korean War, would set the tone for upcoming nuclear negotiations in Beijing.

''It is an important working group because it allows us to really prepare for the next six-party plenary session,'' he told journalists at a Geneva hotel upon his arrival.

''There has been progress on the denuclearisation of DPRK but we have some unfinished business to do,'' he said.

North Korea -- officially called the Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea (DPRK) -- in 2005 agreed with South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States to end its nuclear programme in return for economic and diplomatic benefits.

Under a February 13 deal between those six countries, North Korea said it would disable its nuclear facilities and make a complete declaration of all nuclear programmes, though details of the accord's implementation have not yet been set.

Hill declined to offer details on what Washington was seeking from the two-day talks, due to begin Saturday morning.

But the State Department official said the discussions with lead Pyongyang negotiator Kim Kye-gwan would focus on how North Korea will carry out the commitments it made in February.

''I think I'll have a better idea of that, about the chances of success for that in the next meeting, after the next two days,'' he said.

Kim also sounded a positive note on his arrival at the North Korean mission in Geneva late on Thursday.

''It should be a good meeting, I hope,'' he told Reuters Television, speaking in French.

Washington also agreed in the February 13 deal to start the process of removing Pyongyang from its list of state sponsors of terrorism. Being on that list subjects North Korea to a ban on arms-related sales, prohibitions on some types of US aid and US opposition to it receiving World Bank and other loans.

''We are committed to start that process,'' Hill told reporters. ''We will be discussing that again tomorrow and figuring out at what stage that can be done.'' US officials believe that North Korea, which tested a nuclear device in October, may have enough nuclear fuel to make more than eight or nine atomic weapons.

While North Korea has shut down its nuclear reactor complex at Yongbyon and received 50,000 tonnes of fuel oil as called for by the February deal, many analysts expect its next phase -- the disablement and the declaration -- to be much harder.

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