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US envoy says Korea nuke talks going nowhere

Efforts to drive North Korea back to stalled nuclear talks are in big trouble, the top US negotiator said yesterday after meeting a senior Chinese official to try and to forge a breakthrough.

"I think clearly we are in a very difficult moment with the six-party talks process because the DPRK [North Korea] is not giving the signals it wants to return," Christopher Hill told reporters in Beijing.

Hill's latest trip to the region comes amid media reports that North Korea could soon test a nuclear bomb. Pyongyang said in February last year that it was a nuclear power but is not known to have tested an atomic weapon.

The US envoy, who is on a regional tour, said he had spoken with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei (武大偉) about "the danger that the DPRK could take additional, provocative steps."

"We talked about the need to make very clear to the DPRK that this would be a very, very unwelcome development," he told reporters, when asked directly about a possible nuclear test.

The North agreed in principle in September last year to give up its nuclear weapons program in exchange for aid and security guarantees.

But Pyongyang walked out of talks two months later to protest US sanctions on a Macau-based bank accused of laundering and counterfeiting money on behalf of the impoverished regime.

The six-nation talks -- involving China, the US, the two Koreas, Japan and Russia -- were further waylaid when North Korea tested ballistic missiles in July.

The tests resulted in a UN Security Council resolution which called on the global community to work together to prevent North Korea from acquiring weapons of mass destruction and urged Pyongyang to return to the six-party talks.

Hill nudged China to make sure it was applying the right pressure on Pyongyang, and said Washington would be looking into possible financial and other economic sanctions against North Korea in accordance with the resolution.

"China understands that the UN Security Council resolution needs to be fully implemented. We would expect the Chinese to do the same pursuant to their obligations," he said.

He refused to discuss what China was planning to do to help implement the resolution, other than trying to get North Korea to return to the six-party talks and resolve the issue diplomatically.

The topic was likely to soon be discussed in a meeting between US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing (李肇星) in New York, said Hill, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs.

Hill arrived in Beijing from Tokyo on Tuesday as part of a five-day visit that was to include stops at US diplomatic missions in Chengdu, Guangzhou and Shanghai, US officials said. He will also visit Seoul on Sept. 10.

His tour of Asia is seen as an effort to revive the six-nation talks, but also has come amid South Korean press reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was either visiting or preparing to visit China.
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