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Little progress made in North Korean session

The US rejected a North Korean offer to freeze its nuclear programs during three days of multiparty talks, saying only full dismantlement was acceptable, the chief US negotiator said yesterday.

The fifth round of six-party talks, involving the US, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, Russia and host China, ended yesterday, with little apparent progress towards their goal of ending North Korea's nuclear program.

US negotiator Christopher Hill described the talks as a useful stepping stone, but he also underscored the difficulties ahead as negotiators seek agreement on when and how North Korea will declare its nuclear programs, open them to international inspection and then permanently dismantle them.

In a breakthrough deal agreed to in September, North Korea said it would disarm in exchange for aid and security guarantees. It is also demanding a light-water reactor for civil use.

"Our view is that stopping their programs is simply something they have to do," Hill told reporters at the end of the three-day session aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons ambitions.

"We don't want to get into a situation where they stop the programs -- in short freeze the programs -- and then expect us to compensate for a freeze," he said.

He said North Korea proposed negotiating a freeze of its nuclear programs in return for a compensation package.

"We realized how much work we have ahead of us," he said of the latest talks.

In the coming weeks, the six countries were likely to form groups of experts to negotiate the "technical underbrush" of a potential disarmament agreement, Hill said.

A Chinese statement at the end of the talks said the parties agreed to hold a second session of the fifth round at the earliest possible date.

"The parties reaffirmed that they would fully implement the [September] joint statement in line with the principle -- commitment for commitment, action for action," the statement said.

Hill said it may be difficult to reconvene next month, because of other commitments.

The fifth round of talks made clear the continuing friction between Washington and Pyongyang.

The North Korean envoy to six-party talks on Pyongyang's nuclear programs criticized US sanctions on firms accused of weapons proliferation, saying the action was hindering progress during discussions.

"We have raised very seriously the financial sanctions which were imposed by the US on [North Korea]," envoy Kim Gye-gwan told reporters outside the regime's embassy in Beijing.

"These kind of sanctions are in violation of the joint statement we have adopted and is going to hinder the implementation of the commitment we have made," he said.

Washington imposed sanctions last month on eight North Korean companies accused of acting as fronts for sales of banned missile, nuclear or biological weapons technology.

Kim said the two sides agreed to hold bilateral talks on the issue.

FIGHTER JETS

Meanwhile, two North Korean fighter jets briefly flew over South Korean waters yesterday, the South's military said.

Approaching from the west, the Northern jets entered the South-controlled airspace over seas south of the inter-Korean maritime border at 1:13pm and immediately flew back to the North after six South Korean jets approached, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

The North Korean fighters did not respond to radio warnings from the South, the office said.
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