NORTH KOREA: Talks on dismantling North Korea's nuclear weapons programmes reached deadlock yesterday, with Washington and Pyongyang at odds over the North's insistence on its right to a nuclear energy programme.
Failure to reach an accord at the Beijing talks could prompt the United States to take the issue to the UN Security Council and press for sanctions. China opposes such a move, and communist North Korea has said sanctions would be tantamount to war.
After three days of talks, the US and North Korean delegations were as far apart as ever.
"There wasn't any progress today," chief US negotiator Christopher Hill said after a 90-minute meeting with the North Koreans.
"The DPRK made very clear that they will not dismantle the existing nuclear programmes until they receive a light-water reactor. No delegation is prepared to offer North Korea a light-water reactor." DPRK stands for the reclusive state's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Host China also sounded a negative note after a meeting of chief delegates from the six parties in the talks - the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and China.
"There are still great differences on certain issues," Chinese spokesman Liu Jianchao said.
Urging patience, Mr Liu said the talks would resume today.
But Mr Hill said there might come a point where all delegates looked at setting a deadline: "We are not there yet," he added.
North Korea stood firm on its demand for a reactor that generates electricity but is unsuitable for making nuclear arms.
"The issue of a light-water reactor is one that's related to the political commitment by the United States to clear its hostility against us and to peacefully coexist," a spokesman for the North Korean delegation told reporters.
"We are demanding something specific, not an empty right to peaceful nuclear activities. All the countries have expressed understanding of our position, but only the United States is adamantly against it."