U.S. and N. Korea Discuss Nuclear Deadlock, Are to Meet Again Today

The United States and North Korea on Sunday ended a second day of talks aimed at breaking a deadlock over the future of Pyongyang’s nuclear program with both sides declining to say whether any progress was made.

U.S. and North Korean delegations met at North Korea’s old embassy to the former East Germany for more than three hours to try to salvage a crucial U.S.-backed plan to steer Pyongyang away from building nuclear weapons.

A North Korean spokesman said the two sides would meet again today at the U.S. mission in eastern Berlin.

The Berlin talks stem from a key U.S.-North Korean accord signed in Geneva in October under which Pyongyang pledged to freeze its nuclear program and stop building two graphite-moderated reactors.

In exchange, North Korea was promised safer light-water plants paid for by a consortium of the United States, South Korea and Japan in a package that will cost $4.5 billion.

Graphite reactors produce more of the plutonium that can be used for making nuclear arms.

The agreement averted a serious crisis over North Korea’s atomic industry, which the West suspected was a cover for a secret nuclear arms program.

But North Korea has objected to accepting light-water reactors from its archrival, South Korea. Pyongyang favors a nuclear plant model from Germany, the United States or France.