North Korea talks end, wrangling to continue

BEIJING (Reuters) - Grinding talks to end North Korea's nuclear arms ambitions will shift to technical wrangling over disarmament steps, envoys said on Friday as they endorsed a broad plan lacking any deadline.

Chinese envoy Wu Dawei, speaking after the latest round of six-party talks, announced that working groups would meet before the end of August to discuss how to press forward a disarmament deal.

In September, fresh six-way talks would "work out the road map" for implementing disarmament steps, Wu said.

Foreign ministers from North and South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia would then meet "as soon as possible" to affirm the deal and explore ways of improving regional security, he said.

North Korea remained committed to winding down its nuclear activities, Wu said. But he mentioned no deadlines.

"The DPRK side reiterated that it will earnestly implement its commitment to a complete declaration of all nuclear programs and disablement of all existing nuclear facilities," he said, referring to the North by its formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Chief U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill said earlier he believed North Korea could still complete that second phase by the end of 2007.

Hill had pushed for a December finish for the tasks. But North Korea would not accept a deadline yet and host China decided the idea was not workable.

Now contention will shift to the expert groups dealing with energy aid, disarmament technicalities and Pyongyang's stormy relations with the United States and Japan.

"Ultimately we decided not to put in deadlines yet," Hill said on Friday. "We'll put in deadlines when we have the working groups and we know precisely what we are talking about."

"IMPOSSIBLE TO BE SATISFIED"

Even as the negotiators wrapped up their three days of talks, there were signs of the friction that could easily disrupt or even derail further agreement.

Asked about North Korea's response, Japanese chief negotiator Kenichiro Sasae told reporters: "It's impossible to be satisfied with the other party's attitude."

The International Atomic Energy Agency says North Korea has shut five main nuclear facilities at Yongbyon, north of the capital, completing the first stage of a deal reached in February.

The facilities include a reactor and an atomic fuel reprocessing plant that can extract the plutonium Pyongyang used for its first nuclear test blast last October.

Pyongyang quit the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty early in 2003 after throwing out U.N. nuclear inspectors.

China convened a first round of six-party talks the following August, but progress eluded delegates until February this year when North Korea agreed to close Yongbyon in return for an initial 50,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil. The first shipment reached the North on July 14.

Under phase two, the North is to receive an additional 950,000 tonnes of fuel oil in return for disabling its atomic facilities and coming clean on its nuclear secrets.

Hill said Pyongyang had an incentive to move forward, with talk about other forms of aid and improving oil storage capacity in North Korea.

"My opinion remains the same -- that all of this is quite doable by the end of the year," he said, referring to the second stage of the deal. "Further fuel oil is contingent on further denuclearisation."

Accumulated distrust remained an obstacle, said Jon Wolfsthal, an expert on the dispute at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

"Neither the United States nor North Korea is really confident yet that the other country has fundamentally changed its stance," he said. "Neither wants to move too far ahead while still unsure of the other's motives."