N. Korea, U.S. fail to agree on nuclear sampling

(ATTN: UPDATES with quotes from N.K., U.S. envoys, background)
SINGAPORE, Dec. 5 (Yonhap) -- Top North Korean nuclear envoy Kim Kye-gwan indicated on Friday meetings with his U.S. counterpart failed to produce a deal on putting in writing a verification protocol for the North's past nuclear activities.
"Sampling is a method of verification and so we need more discussions on that
matter," Kim told reporters after two days of meetings with Christopher Hill, the
chief U.S. negotiator, in Singapore.
"We discussed in detail for the past two days how to wrap up the (implementation)
of the Oct. 3 agreement," Kim said.
He said the topics included discussion on the mechanism for verifying a nuclear
declaration submitted by the North in June. "We will continue negotiations in the
future," he said.
The two envoys met to find ways to minimize differences before the main six-party
discussions in Beijing next week.
The U.S. side raised the need for North Korea to promise in writing methods of
verifying its nuclear declaration, including taking samples, to leave no
misunderstandings before the parties get to the actual verification process,
diplomatic sources said. But Washington showed willingness to be flexible in the
format and wording of the document only if Pyongyang agrees to produce a written
agreement on sampling, they said.
Pyongyang agreed last year to disable its nuclear under a six-party nuclear
disarmament deal with the United States, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea in
return for economic and political rewards.
Washington maintains Pyongyang agreed in October to allow international
inspectors to remove samples from its Yongbyon nuclear complex for testing. But
Pyongyang has denied having reached such an agreement and said the verification
will involve only field visits, confirmation of documents and interviews with
technicians.
Hill also said he expects difficult six-party talks next week and more work needs
to be done to iron out verification details, according to Reuters.
"... I can just tell you that I'm sure the negotiations when we do sit down to
negotiate in Beijing, I'm sure the negotiations will be as usual, difficult," the
U.S. envoy was quoted as saying after the meetings.
"Scientific procedures they have agreed to and we have an understanding from them
on what it means, the question is how much of that they are willing to put on
paper in advance," the Reuters quoted him as saying.
Host China has already informed South Korea of its plan to open the negotiations
on Monday afternoon for a three-day run, according to Seoul officials.
Kim said his country is not opposed to the meeting schedule.
Top envoys of the six parties are expected to hold various bilateral or
multilateral meetings in Beijing ahead of formal negotiations to discuss the
verification protocol and fuel oil shipment and other forms of economic aid to
North Korea.
North Korea has been promised 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil or the equivalent
by its five negotiating partners as part of a package of rewards for disabling
its key nuclear facilities and providing a list of nuclear programs.
The North, however, said early last month that it had again slowed the pace of
disabling its Yongbyon nuclear plant due to the delayed arrival of energy
compensation.
"We have so far received about 450,000 tons of heavy oil. Schedules (for energy
aid) should be made clear," Kim said.
sshim@yna.co.kr
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