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U.S.: North Korea deal 'uncertain'Impasse over Pyongyang's demand for peaceful nuclear activities
SPECIAL REPORTQUICKVOTEYOUR E-MAIL ALERTS(CNN) -- Prospects for a deal on scrapping North Korea's nuclear program are uncertain, U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill said Tuesday, though he expects bilateral contacts before the next round of six-party talks, Reuters reports. Hill, assistant secretary of state and the U.S. envoy to the six-party talks, spoke in Washington after returning from an unsuccessful round of negotiations in Beijing. After meeting for 13 straight days, diplomats from the United States, the two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia decided on Sunday to take a recess from talks aimed at getting North Korea to dismantle its nuclear program. The recess will last until at least August 29. The sticking point, officials said Sunday, is North Korea's refusal to abandon all its nuclear programs. North Korea's envoy, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan, said Tuesday the crux of resolving the nuclear issue was "the differences between the policies of (the North) and the U.S.," according to China's state-run Xinhua news agency. Kim said North Korea should be allowed to retain nuclear programs for peaceful purposes. But Hill said Pyongyang's wish to have a light-water reactor was unacceptable because of U.S. fears that the North could switch from research to weapons-making, Reuters reported. "The issue of getting rid of nuclear weapons should be an obvious one, should be an easy one," Hill said on Sunday in Beijing. But, he said, given the fact that North Korea has been involved in nuclear weapons programs for more than 20 years, that decision was a "difficult" one for them. The 13 days of talks, Hill said, had achieved "a lot of consensus," but "we were not able to finish the job and bridge the remaining gaps." He said he hoped the North Koreans would use the break to "go back, think hard and long about what to do." The latest round of talks, the fourth, began on July 25. On Sunday, officials said the recess would last until August 29. Lines of communication would remain open, authorities said. In 2002, the United States accused North Korea of skirting international agreements by maintaining a covert uranium enrichment program. North Korea responded by renouncing the Non-Proliferation Treaty, restarting its Yongbyon nuclear plant and kicking out U.N. inspectors. In February, North Korea declared it had nuclear weapons and said it would continue boycotting the talks unless the United States agreed to one-on-one negotiations. But the North Koreans finally agreed to come back to Beijing. U.S. and North Korean negotiators did meet one-on-one amid this round of six-party talks. In late July, North Korea said it wanted to replace the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War with a formal peace treaty as part of the negotiations. Washington has maintained the focus is on dismantling North Korea's nuclear programs. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has said his nation would rejoin the Non-Proliferation treaty and admit international inspectors if the Beijing talks were successful. --CNN Correspondent Stan Grant contributed to this report 
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