China Sees Progress On N. Korea Nuke Talks

Negotiators at international talks aimed at disarming North Korea's nuclear program struggled Saturday to reach agreement on ways to verify the communist nation's declaration of its atomic materials.

Top U.S. envoy Christopher Hill said a working group was hammering out the specifics of a verification protocol.

"We're not asking for anything unusual. We're asking for things that are done all over the world. We want a basically standard kind of package on how you verify this type of nuclear program," he said Saturday.

Once a procedure is established, Hill has said he expects the verification process could take weeks or even months.

Late Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said "some positive progress had been made," with negotiators reaching a "principled consensus" on verification but that specific details still needed to be worked out.

"Just what are the specific agreements on verification, I think the six parties will make an announcement soon," Qin told a news conference.

On Thursday, there was basic agreement among negotiators that the process of verifying the declaration would include site visits, interviews with North Korean officials and examination of documents, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said.

The talks are scheduled to continue Saturday, but it is not known if that will be the last day of the negotiations.

The current round of six-nation talks, the first in nine months, comes after Pyongyang handed over its much-delayed nuclear declaration late last month and then blew up the cooling tower at its main nuclear reactor to demonstrate its commitment to disarmament.

The talks also focused on fuel aid to energy-starved North Korea, which has complained that countries involved in the talks have supplied only 40 percent of promised energy shipments.

North Korea was promised fuel aid equivalent to 1 million tons of oil under a February 2007 disarmament deal. Japan has opted out of contributing, citing a lack of progress by North Korea in resolving the issue of its abductions of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and '80s.

"Japan and North Korea have some problems in their relations," Qin said, adding China hoped that they can resolve their differences through dialogue and negotiations.

Kim Sook, Seoul's top nuclear envoy, told reporters the six parties had "extensive discussions" and that some common ground had been reached on verification, monitoring and energy aid to North Korea.

In response to North Korea's nuclear declaration last month, the United States announced it would remove the North from a list of state sponsors of terrorism and relax some economic sanctions against it.

The steps paved the way for the resumption of the six-nation meetings in Beijing after the nine-month lull.

The nuclear standoff began in late 2002 when the U.S. accused North Korea of seeking to secretly enrich uranium in violation of a 1994 disarmament deal.

North Korea's nuclear declaration, delivered six months later than the country promised, is said to give the overall figure for how much plutonium was produced at its main Yongbyon nuclear complex, but no details of bombs that may have been made.

Experts believe North Korea has produced as much as 110 pounds of weapons-grade plutonium, enough for up to 10 nuclear bombs.