N. Korean Terms Deadlock Nuclear Negotiations

North Korea’s envoy to six-nation disarmament talks said Thursday that the Pyongyang regime was adamant about its right to “peaceful nuclear activities,” an issue that has deadlocked the meeting, but participants said the talks were continuing.

The North’s envoy, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan, said after 10 days of talks that delegates were “at a stalemate” on a statement of principles to guide negotiations.

“We are for denuclearizing, but we also want to possess the right to peaceful nuclear activities,” Kim said.

“As you know, only one country is opposing that,” he said, referring to the United States.

Earlier Thursday, the top U.S. envoy, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, said North Korea must specify what it would dismantle under a nuclear agreement. He has said any agreement must include the elimination of nuclear programs that could be diverted for weapons use.

“We cannot have a situation where [North Korea] pretends to abandon their nuclear program and we pretend to believe them,” Hill said. “We need to have a situation where we know precisely what they have agreed to do, exactly what they have agreed to abandon.”

China, the meeting’s host, said diplomats would meet again today.

However, the Chinese mentioned the prospect that the current negotiations could end without an agreement. Three previous rounds of six-nation talks in Beijing since 2003 have failed to bridge differences.

“A joint declaration is not a measure for whether or not the six-party talks are a success,” said Qin Gang, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman.

The six chief delegates held a rare nighttime meeting Thursday in which Chinese officials asked whether they wanted to continue this round of negotiations, and all agreed to keep talking, Hill said. The talks involve the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.

The United States and the two Koreas also met to seek consensus on the joint statement. Hill said it was the first such three-way meeting.

Seoul’s top envoy, Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min Soon, said North Korea “clarified its position” on the latest draft proposed by China, but he wouldn’t elaborate.

Kim said the two sides also remained divided over “corresponding measures” -- what the North would receive for renouncing nuclear development.

The North wants aid in exchange for freezing nuclear development and then additional assistance for dismantling the program. Washington wants to see the program verifiably dismantled before it provides any rewards.