(News Focus) N. Korea, U.S. set for make-or-break talks in Singapore

By Lee Chi-dong

SEOUL, Dec. 3 (Yonhap) -- Progress in the six-way talks on the North Korean nuclear program depends again on a showdown between Pyongyang and Washington in Singapore, an emerging venue for the two sides' crucial negotiations.

North Korea's top nuclear envoy Kim Kye-gwan flew into the city state on Tuesday
for the first meeting with his American counterpart Christopher Hill in two
months.
Hill was also to leave for Singapore after holding a trilateral meeting in Tokyo
Wednesday with chief South Korean and Japanese negotiators. The Kim-Hill meeting
is expected to begin on Thursday and it may last through the weekend.
Upon arriving at a Tokyo airport on Tuesday night, Hill said the bilateral talks
is aimed at clarifying his controversial October deal with Kim in Pyongyang on
ways to verify the North's June declaration of its nuclear assets, especially on
whether international inspectors will be allowed to take samples from soil and
nuclear wastes.
The U.S. said the North agreed to "scientific procedures including sampling and
forensic activities" but Pyongyang has denied it, saying sampling is an
infringement upon its sovereignty.
The differences dim the chance of a success at a new round of six-party talks
also involving China and Russia, although it is expected to be held on Dec. 8 as
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said last month.
The six parties would not return to the table without the prospects for a deal on
the verification issue, which Rice said will be the top agenda in the upcoming
talks in Beijing.
That is a reason why, according to informed sources, host China is delaying the
announcement of a schedule for the new round.
"China seems to be waiting for North Korea's final answer after the Singapore
talks," a diplomatic source said.
It would be tempting for North Koreans to believe time is on their side, with the
transition of the U.S. government just around the corner, added the source.
The outgoing Bush administration is apparently eager to work out a verification
protocol to clear the way for its successor to focus on the next stage.
For North Korea, a new six-party agreement would mean the additional delivery of
about 500,000 tons of heavy oil and energy related materials, the remainder of
the one million tons promised under last year's aid-for-denuclearization deal.
Many expect that the Bush administration, pressed for time to make another
diplomatic achievement, will reluctantly make concessions.
Sung Kim, the U.S. special envoy to the six-way talks, also hinted at some
flexibility in the disputes over sampling.
"The wording itself is important. But a common understanding among all the
related parties is more important," he said during his trip last week to Jeju
Island for a U.N. disarmament forum.
If a compromise is reached after all between North Korea and the U.S. in
Singapore, the other four participants in the six-way talks will likely
rubber-stamp it as Pyongyang wants.
The choice of Singapore as the venue, not Beijing where the six-way talks are
held, reflects Pyongyang's strategy to put the nuclear issue in a bilateral
footing with Washington, officials here said.
"North Korea has an embassy in Singapore and it also provides the North Korean
delegation with various services including financial support," a South Korean
foreign ministry official said.
The North Korean and U.S. negotiators met in Singapore in April and produced a
breakthrough in a stalemate over the format and contents of the nuclear
declaration.