North Korea hosts US for last day of Geneva talks

GENEVA, Sep 2 (Reuters) North Korea hosted US envoys at its mission in Geneva today for the second and final day of talks aimed at smoothing relations between the 1950-53 Korean War opponents and speeding up Pyongyang's nuclear disarmament.

Top nuclear negotiator Kim Kye-gwan and US Assistant Secretary of State Chris Hill arrived separately at the North Korean compound for the full-day session, which followed a meeting yesterday at the US mission in Geneva.

Both sides had said the first day of talks yesterday progressed well, spanning a range of topics including the ways the Stalinist state would disable and account for its nuclear facilities, as it promised under a six-party deal in February.

The delegations also discussed Washington dropping North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, a key demand for economically isolated Pyongyang as it struggles to overcome chronic food shortages and severe August flooding.

Being on that list imposes a ban on arms-related sales and keeps North Korea from receiving some US aid. Washington said on Friday it would offer ''a significant food aid package'' to help Pyongyang cope with the floods that killed at least 600 people, made 170,000 homeless and destroyed many croplands.

Hill, speaking to reporters at a hotel before leaving for the North Korean mission, said the talks today would likely comb through issues to arise later this month in negotiations between North and South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States, ''so there won't be surprises''.

''We want to make sure that we have an understanding about what the various meetings are going to look like,'' he said.

The six-way negotiations have moved slowly since September 2005, when North Korea agreed in principle to end its nuclear programme in return for economic and diplomatic benefits.

US officials believe that North Korea, which tested a nuclear device last year, may have enough nuclear fuel to make more than eight or nine atomic weapons. Hill said today that US ties with North Korea would not be fully normalised until Pyongyang abandons the nuclear programme.

''I think the US-DPRK relationship is a relationship that we will continue to try to build step by step,'' he said, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea.

After the Geneva meetings with the US delegation, North Korean negotiators will hold bilateral talks with Japan aimed at overcoming frictions. A six-party plenary session is then expected to be held in mid-September in Beijing.

REUTERS PDT PM1616