(2nd LD) Envoys struggle to save stalled talks

(ATTN: UPDATES throughout with envoys' comments; CHANGES headline)
By Lee Chi-dong
BEIJING, Dec. 11 (Yonhap) -- Veteran negotiators at this week's six-way talks on
North Korea's nuclear program risked going back home without a deal Thursday in
what is likely the last chance for the Bush administration to save a troubled
aid-for-denuclearization agreement signed last year.
The negotiators gathered at Daioyutai State Guest House in Beijing for the fourth
day of discussions. Some bilateral meetings continued but no breakthrough was
reported.
Whether the talks will continue remains unclear. "Nobody knows," Yuri Kim, a U.S.
State Department official participating in the negotiations told Yonhap News
Agency at Daioyutai, as the chief delegates from the U.S., China, Russia, Japan,
and the two Koreas held a tea meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.
"The six-party talks are an important mechanism for resolving the North Korean
nuclear program and establishing peace in the region," the minister said through
an interpreter at the beginning of the meeting.
South Korean delegates also refused to predict how the deadlocked talks will
proceed. "It is in a complete haze," one delegate said. He added, however, that
it would be difficult to produce a deal given wide differences between Pyongyang
and the other parties over the main agenda item -- whether North Korea will allow
international inspectors to take samples from soil and waste at its nuclear sites
for analysis at foreign laboratories.
The U.S. says sampling is crucial in verifying the accuracy of the North's June
declaration of its nuclear inventory.
"Obviously we would like to see progress made on this verification protocol, and
so far we haven't seen that," top U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill told
reporters earlier in the day. "The North Koreans don't want to put into writing
what they are willing to put into words."
North Korea, which conducted an underground nuclear test in 2006, reiterated its
claim that it is a nuclear state, Hill said, although the international community
does not recognize it as such.
Documenting detailed verification methods is a key goal in this week's six-way
talks.
A stalemate on the verification issue will also affect negotiations on the other
main agenda items, which include a timetable for completing the North's disabling
of its Yongbyon nuclear reactor and the delivery of energy aid by its dialogue
partners.
South Korea said it has pushed for a package deal.
lcd@yna.co.kr
(END)