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Pyongyang agrees to more nuclear talks after impasse

North Korea said yesterday it has agreed with the US to continue working to resolve a stalemate in international negotiations over the North's promise to fully declare its nuclear weapons programs.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency said the two sides held "an in-depth discussion on the differences" during one-on-one meetings last week in Switzerland over a disarmament-for-aid agreement reached last year.

The two countries agreed to "sit face-to-face with each other and continue the discussion" to find a solution to the impasse which is holding up the nuclear deal, KCNA said in a three-sentence dispatch, the first time it has mentioned the Geneva talks.

The report gave no details of what was discussed or when the two sides would meet again.

US nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill has said he made progress in the talks with his North Korean counterpart, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan, but stopped short of announcing any agreement.

The nuclear deal stalled after Washington accused North Korea of failing to fully account for all its nuclear programs as it had pledged to do by the end of last year.

The key points are believed to be whether North Korea had a clandestine uranium enrichment program and whether it transferred nuclear technology to Syria.

The impasse has led North Korea to slow the disabling of its nuclear facilities.

North Korea also accused US-backed radio stations of broadcasting an increasing number of "provocative" programs criticizing Pyongyang, and called on Monday for an end to the transmissions.

The US-financed Radio Free Asia and Voice of America have been broadcasting more and more shows condemning the North and aimed at toppling the communist regime, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.

The broadcasts prove the US "has no willingness to make a switchover in its DPRK policy," KCNA said, referring to the North by the acronym for its formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

North Korea often accuses the US of a having a hostile policy toward it.
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