North Korea digs in as nuclear talks resume
(AP)
Updated: 2005-09-14 06:54

Contacts between U.S. and North Korean diplomats in New York in the past month failed to make any progress, Hill said earlier. But he said "their position does seem to be evolving a little," without elaborating.

Chief North Korean negotiator Kim Kye Gwan said before he left for Beijing that his country will not tolerate any obstruction to its right to a peaceful nuclear program, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported.

"This right is neither awarded nor needs to be approved by others," Kim said in Pyongyang, adding that the country would "utterly not accept" if Washington tries to block that right.

Still, Kim said the North would attend the talks with a sincere and flexible attitude, according to Xinhua.

The Chinese hosts also acknowledged the impasse over the North's demand to keep its civilian nuclear program.

"There is a major difference between the parties, that is the DPRK's (North Korea's) peaceful use of nuclear energy," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said.

South Korea's chief negotiator urged envoys to be open-minded at the talks.

"If each party can be a little more flexible in its position, there will be good results, but if they stick to their current position, good results will be hard to expect," Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-soon said as he arrived in Beijing.

The two Koreas also began high-level talks Tuesday in Pyongyang separate from the nuclear forum, where the South proposed discussions on how to ease military tension and bring permanent peace to the divided peninsula. The Korean War ended in a 1953 cease-fire, leaving the two countries still at war. But reconciliation efforts have flourished since the first-and-only summit of their leaders in 2000.