U.S. envoy denies rift with N. Korea on nuclear verification

(ATTN: UPDATES throughout with results of envoys' meeting)
By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, Nov. 24 (Yonhap) -- A U.S. nuclear negotiator said Monday that his
country has no dispute with North Korea over ways to verify Pyongyang's recent
nuclear claims.
"We don't think there is any difference. There is no confusion between Washington
and Pyongyang on what was agreed," Sung Kim, the U.S. special envoy to the
six-way talks, told reporters, emerging from a meeting with Hwang Joon-kook,
director general of the North Korean nuclear affairs bureau at the South Korean
Foreign Ministry.
"I think the task now is to bring that bilateral agreement and understanding into
the six-party process ... finalize and adopt that in the next round of the
six-party talks," he added.
Kim, on a trip here to attend a U.N. disarmament forum underway on the southern
resort island of Jeju, serves as Washington's deputy chief delegate to the
six-way talks on the North Korean nuclear program.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said earlier that a new round of
negotiations will start on Dec. 8. The last round was held in July.
She said the negotiations will formalize ways of verifying the North's June
declaration of how much weapons-grade plutonium it has produced.
Announcing its plan to remove the communist nation from the list of state
sponsors of terrorism in October, the U.S. said it struck a deal with the North
on a set of scientific verification procedures including sample-taking. But
Pyongyang argues that sampling was not part of the deal reached when Washington's
top nuclear envoy, Christopher Hill, was dispatched to Pyongyang last month.
Kim, when asked whether he is confident of making progress in the new talks,
said, "I am confident that we will work very hard to make progress."
Standing next to Kim, South Korean envoy Hwang said that they exchanged views on
putting key verification measures into a six-way written format.
"We also discussed a timetable on completing the second stage (of the three-tier
denuclearization process) and related pending issues," Hwang said.
Seoul and Washington have decided to continue energy aid to North Korea in
accordance with the speed of verification and the North's disabling of its main
nuclear reactor in Yongbyon, he added.
lcd@yna.co.kr
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