The US will not bargain any more with North Korea over its nuclear weapons drive, the top US envoy said yesterday as six-nation talks hung in the balance on a final day of negotiations.
Christopher Hill and his counterparts from Japan and South Korea said the success or failure of the talks in Beijing depended on the final response from North Korean negotiator Kim Kye-gwan.
"I think we have put everything on the table. We offered a way forward on a number of issues," Hill told reporters.
"They [North Koreans] just have to make a decision. I don't think we are going to do any more bargaining," he said.
Hill said yesterday would be the final day of talks, which had begun on Thursday on an optimistic note with host China presenting a proposal for North Korea to take initial steps toward disarmament in return for economic incentives.
Last day
"It is the last day. The Chinese announced this to us and I was the first to second the motion," Hill said as he and his fellow envoys from China, the two Koreas, Japan and Russia prepared to meet again at a state guesthouse one final time.
The draft accord put forward by China outlined measures North Korea could take to begin disarming in return for energy aid and other economic incentives.
While envoys have not given any specifics of the accord, press reports have said it would commit North Korea to closing its five-megawatt nuclear reactor at Yongbyon and other atomic facilities within two months.
But the reclusive Stalinist regime, apparently emboldened by its first-ever nuclear test in October last year, has demanded 2 million tonnes of fuel oil as part of a package of inducements, Japanese press have reported.
That would be four times as much fuel oil as offered under a now-defunct 1994 disarmament deal. Chief Japanese envoy Kenichiro Sasae told reporters on Sunday that the main problem was North Korea's "excessive expectations" for energy aid.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency, quoting sources in Beijing, reported that talks had become bogged down over the US wanting to "disable" rather than just "freeze or shut down" the North's nuclear weapons facilities.
Maximum efforts
"Our country for its part will make maximum efforts to help bring about an agreement in cooperation with the countries concerned," Sasae said.
"[But] this will largely depend on how North Korea is going to act. What kind of answer they are going to give," Sasae said.
South Korean envoy Chun Yung-woo said: "North Korea knows how much of the corresponding measures we can take [in return] for how far North Korea goes. I expect North Korea to come up with an opinion."
Hill hinted that the six-party talks -- which began in 2003 but have not stopped the North's efforts to become a nuclear power -- could be nearing the end of their usefulness if an agreement was not reached in this round.
"I think there is a certain life cycle to these negotiations and I think there is an opportunity here," he said.
"I think a lot of people have to look and consider the value of this diplomatic track ... I don't want to predict this is the last chance but I think it is a moment that we have to see whether the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] is interested in this opportunity or not," he said.
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