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    4th round of six-country nuclear talks begins
    (Agencies)
    Updated: 2005-07-26 08:54

    US, DPRK meet ahead of 6-party talks

    In a rare one-on-one meeting Monday aimed at paving the way for progress at the talks, U.S. envoy Christopher Hill and North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan held "businesslike" discussions, but did not address specific issues such as whether the North has a uranium enrichment program, a senior U.S. official said.

    Instead, the two envoys discussed the terms of their dispute, such as what the North means when it says it wants a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.

    Because the two countries have so little contact, the U.S. agreement to meet one-on-one could be seen as a minor concession to the North Koreans, who long have wanted to resolve the dispute through direct talks with Washington.

    The round of talks set to start Tuesday is the fourth in a series that have produced no major progress. They also include host China, South Korea, Japan and Russia.

    Hill, an assistant secretary of state, met with his North Korean counterpart for about 75 minutes at a Chinese government guesthouse as all the delegations held a flurry of contacts to prepare for the talks.

    In Washington, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Hill had reported back on the meeting and said the atmosphere for the talks was good.

    It "was a very businesslike exchange of information focused on the way forward," McClellan said. "But it was not a negotiating session. It was more of a discussion to talk about modalities for the six-party talks."

    State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the hope is that talks will continue beyond this round.

    "I think we are all hopeful that this round of the talks will allow all the parties to make progress so that it will allow us, as a six-party talks forum, to decide that another round is merited," McCormack said.

    North Korea has demanded aid, a peace treaty with Washington and diplomatic relations in exchange for giving up nuclear development. It wants aid in exchange for freezing and then scrapping the program.

    The United States says it won't offer concessions until the program is permanently dismantled.

    "We have a proposal that we've put on the table and we want to make progress on that proposal in these talks," McClellan said Monday. He did not elaborate.

    All six delegations agreed not to set a time limit on this round of talks, hoping a flexible schedule will make progress possible, the U.S. official said.

    All three previous rounds - the last in June 2004 - were limited to three days.

    Negotiators are already discussing the possible timing of a fifth round of talks in order to avoid another long gap that could harm the negotiations, the U.S. official said.

    The dispute erupted in late 2002 when the United States said North Korea had admitted running a secret uranium enrichment program.

    In February, the North claimed it had nuclear weapons. It hasn't conducted any known test explosions, but experts believe it has enough weapons-grade plutonium for about a half-dozen bombs.

    Earlier this month, Seoul tried to prod the North toward a settlement by offering 2 million kilowatts of electricity by 2008 if it agrees to dismantle its nuclear weapons.

    The talks have been complicated by Japan's insistence on also settling the issue of Japanese citizens abducted by the North's spy agency.

    The leader of Tokyo's delegation, Kenichiro Sasae, said Japan and the United States agreed to "cooperate closely" to address the abductions. His comments were broadcast on Japan's NHK television.

    On Monday, South Korean officials pressed Japan not to let other issues obstruct progress on the nuclear dispute, according to a Seoul official.


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