Talks on North Korea weapons still deadlocked

CHINA: Striking a cautiously optimistic tone heading into another tiring day of six-party talks to end a nuclear standoff on the Korean peninsula has become a daily routine for delegates at Beijing's Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, even on day 11 of the marathon negotiations.

But diplomats from both Koreas, the United States, China, Russia and Japan entering the venue seem increasingly resigned to the fact that optimism is not enough to break the three-year deadlock over North Korea's nuclear weapons programme.

Washington's negotiators are asking what Pyongyang is prepared to abandon, and senior US negotiator Christopher Hill said the talks had gone into "extra innings".

"We are getting very much to the end of the process. I tell you the good news is we know what the substantive differences are," he said.

Mr Hill was appointed by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and given more flexibility in the negotiating process than his predecessors.

The fact that Pyongyang insists on holding out in the face of this kind of pressure to sign a joint statement is a sign the talks are probably doomed.

For their part, the delegates from the secretive Stalinist state said they were committed to a nuclear-free Korean peninsula but also said they had a right to have a peaceful nuclear programme.

Said North Korea's negotiator Kim Kye-gwan Kim: "We are not a defeated nation in war and we have committed no crime, so why should we not be able to conduct peaceful nuclear activities?"

Three previous rounds of talks ended in stalemate, and a fourth without agreement would call the entire process into question, an outcome which could prompt Washington to take the issue to the UN Security Council.

China is hosting the talks and playing honest broker as it is keen to boost its diplomatic credentials in the region. It is also North Korea's only remaining significant ally.

Beijing's spokesman Qin Gang said he was neither excessively optimistic nor pessimistic about the prospects for the talks, but pointed to the fact that the six parties had held 72 bilateral meetings in the past 10 days.

China, which fought alongside North Korea in the 1950-53 war against the US and South Korea, does not want instability on its northern borders and does not relish the prospect of UN sanctions against North Korea.

North Korea, which is effectively bankrupt and where hundreds of thousands are believed to have died of hunger in the last decade, wants economic aid, energy and security guarantees in return for scrapping its nuclear plan.

Pyongyang significantly raised the stakes in February, when it said it had nuclear weapons and demanded diplomatic recognition and other assurances from Washington.