North Korea talks snag on a paragraph

Prospects for an initial agreement on ending North Korea’s nuclear arms program were clouded today as talks entered a fourth day without an accord on how to compensate Pyongyang for moving to disarm.

Envoys to the talks, from North and South Korea, the United States, Russia, Japan and host China, have agreed on most of a plan that would oblige Pyongyang to shut down nuclear activities in return for economic and security assurances.

But North Korea is at odds with the other participants over a single paragraph of the draft agreement, top U.S. envoy Christopher Hill said late Saturday. “If we can get closure on this issue, we can solve an overall problem and get a set of initial actions,” he said. “If we don’t solve this, I think it’s sort of tough to reconvene the six parties.”

Hill has refused to say exactly what is snagging negotiations. But other diplomats have said the dispute is over the energy and aid incentives Pyongyang would receive in return for shutting down its Yongbyon nuclear reactor, which makes plutonium usable in nuclear weapons.

“A huge gap remains between North Korea and the five [other] countries in terms of figures and volume,” a source close to the talks said.