Deadlocked nuclear talks likely to end without deal

BEIJING, Dec. 10 (Yonhap) -- Negotiators failed Wednesday to narrow differences on how to inspect North Korea's atomic arms program, as Pyongyang's envoy reiterated that his country is a nuclear state, South Korea's representative to the six-way talks said.

"It was a long day, but I have nothing to tell you in terms of progress," Kim
Sook told reporters after his third-day talks with counterparts from North Korea,
the U.S., China, Russia, and Japan.
He said that discussions on a major agenda item -- ways to verify the North's
recent nuclear declaration -- remained stalled.
"There are several core contents in a (planned) verification protocol, especially
scientific procedures including sampling," he said. "North Korea said it can't
accept that. It gave fundamental and comprehensive reasons."
However, the North -- which self-proclaims itself as a nuclear-armed country and
also says that Washington has a "hostile policy" toward it -- did not offer any
new explanations for rejecting the sampling procedures.
North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test in 2006, but the U.S. does not
recognize it as a nuclear state.
Following the last round of talks in July, North Korea agreed to grant
inspectors access to "facilities, review of documents, interviews with technical
personnel and other measures unanimously agreed upon among the six parties."
The verification protocol now being planned will provide more detailed guidelines
on which inspection measures will be used.
The U.S. and its allies emphasize that "sampling and other forensic activities"
are crucial to thorough verification.
"There was little progress from the three things agreed in July," Kim said,
adding it would be difficult for host China to offer a modified draft from the
first one distributed Tuesday.
Chief American envoy Christopher Hill also said no progress was made.
"We have not achieved our goal," Hill said. "It's not trending in the right
direction."
Hill said he is unsure whether the talks will be extended into Thursday.
The latest round of six-way talks was initially supposed to finish Wednesday, but
host China has not yet called an end to this round. China is expected to inform
the parties on Thursday morning on whether talks will be continued or not, envoys
said.