US urges N Korea to agree deal

Christopher Hill said the US had done "everything we can do"

A US envoy has said the success of the latest six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear programme depends on Pyongyang's willingness to compromise.

Christopher Hill said the US had done "everything we can do" during the Beijing talks - now in their 10th day.

He urged the North to sign a statement of principle, put forward by China and backed by the other five nations.

The North wants security guarantees and aid before it scraps its programme, but agreeing timing is proving difficult.

CRISIS TIMELINE Oct 2002: US says North Korea is enriching uranium in violation of agreements Dec 2002: North Korea removes UN seals from Yongbyon nuclear reactor, expels inspectors Feb 2003: IAEA refers North Korea to UN Security Council Aug 2003: First round of six-nation talks begins in Beijing Feb 2005: Pyongyang says it has built nuclear weapons for self-defence Timeline: Nuclear crisis

Mr Hill said Pyongyang "has got to make one very basic decision", referring to the fourth draft of the document offered by the Chinese team on Wednesday.

"It's not easy for them. I don't want to pressure them. But they've got to be able to do it," he said.

"We cannot have a situation where the DPRK (North Korea) pretends to abandon their nuclear programme and we pretend to believe them," the US envoy said.

The two-page draft is seen as the last-ditch attempt to save the open-ended talks.

Both Mr Hill and North Korean envoy Kim Kye-gwan had earlier expressed doubts that an agreement would be achieved.

Six nations - the two Koreas, the US, China, Russia and Japan - are taking part in the talks, already at record length, in the Chinese capital.

'Crucial stage'

Mr Hill said earlier the latest draft - sent overnight to all the teams - appeared to be getting "to the point where we can agree something".

He also suggested that the talks were approaching the final stages of discussions.

Japanese chief negotiator Kenichiro Sasae agreed that the negotiations "had come to a crucial stage".

According to South Korea's chief delegate Song Min-soon, the new draft contains statements on energy aid for North Korea, normalisation of relations with the US and Japan, and the provision of peaceful nuclear energy for the North.

'Confrontations'

The crisis first erupted in 2002 when the United States accused North Korea of pursuing an uranium enrichment project to make nuclear weapons.

The stand-off deepened when Pyongyang withdrew from the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and announced earlier this year that it had plutonium-based nuclear weapons.

It continues to deny any uranium-based capability.

North Korea wants security guarantees and aid before it will scrap its nuclear programme. But the US has always insisted that North Korea abandon its nuclear ambitions before any concessions are made.