New round, old questions for North Korea nuclear talks

By Chris Buckley

BEIJING (Reuters) - Five regional powers will hold disarmament talks with North Korea from Thursday, seeking agreement on how to check the account the secretive state gave of its nuclear activities, officials said on Tuesday.

The six-party talks in Beijing, the first in nine months, come after Washington responded to the North's declaration of its nuclear assets by starting to take it off a terrorism blacklist. But Washington has also called on Pyongyang to answer lingering questions on proliferation and uranium enrichment.

In Japan, the G8 summit added its weight to calls for North Korea to cooperate with the nuclear disarmament process.

In the Chinese capital for warm-up talks with North Korea and other countries, the chief U.S. negotiator, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, said this session would focus on ways to check the nuclear declaration North Korea made in June.

Envoys would "try to work out as soon as we can a verification regime", he told reporters, adding that elements up for discussion included rules for visiting sites and interviewing North Korean nuclear experts.

"I don't think there'll be any surprises for anyone," Hill said, adding that many issues were covered in earlier bilateral contacts. "I think we've teed this up pretty well."

Hosted by China, the six-party talks include the two Koreas, Japan, Russia and the United States. This session is provisionally scheduled to last for three days, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a news conference.

INSPECTION PROGRAM

Analysts said North Korea may sign off on an inspection program but will delay further disarmament steps for as long as possible to squeeze out concessions.

"North Korea has no reason to reveal everything it's got," said Park Young-ho, an analyst at the South's Korea Institute for National Unification.

"Nuclear armaments are not only North Korea's 'card' to play strategically at the negotiating table, but they are also a tool for Kim Jong-il to stay in power."

At a summit in Japan, the Group of Eight nations pressed North Korea to overcome such suspicions.

"We urge the DPRK to fully cooperate in the verification process, including its effective implementation," the G8 powers declared. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is the North's official name.

In late June, the North presented a long-delayed account of its nuclear weapons program that contained information on its plutonium production, but did little to address U.S. suspicions of a secret uranium enrichment program.

North Korea, which tested a nuclear device in October 2006, was required in a disarmament-for-aid deal to make the declaration and start taking apart its Soviet-era nuclear plant at Yongbyon by the end of 2007.