SINGAPORE - Top U.S. nuclear diplomat Christopher Hill met his North Korean counterpart Friday to try to agree final wording on a deal to dismantle Pyongyang's nuclear program ahead of broader talks in Beijing next week.
The talks were delayed by several hours after North Korean nuclear envoy Kim Kye-gwan failed to show up at the U.S. embassy in Singapore for a scheduled morning session, an embassy official said. Hill and Kim began discussions around mid-afternoon.
There was no explanation for the North Korean delay during the second day of talks in Singapore that aim to minimize differences before six-party discussions in Beijing next week.
The two days of meetings in Singapore will set the tone for the talks in Beijing, one of the Bush administration's last chances to make progress on an initial disarmament deal with North Korea before President-elect Barack Obama takes office.
"The issue is not the verification issue, it is how to express it in a piece of paper at a time so there are no misunderstandings," Hill, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asia, earlier told reporters.
"I think they (North Korea) have a clear understanding of what we need in terms of how to go forward."
Under the disarmament agreement, Pyongyang has been offered fuel oil and other aid, as well as greater diplomatic standing, in return for shutting a key nuclear installation and handing over a list of its atomic activities.
Many stumbling blocks have held up the disarmament agreement struck at the on-off negotiations between North and South Korea, China, the United States, Japan and Russia.
The latest is the North's reluctance to allow international inspectors to take nuclear samples out of the country for testing. Washington maintains that Pyongyang is obliged to allow such tests by understandings reached in October.
In response to a question on whether sampling issues had been discussed in Singapore, Hill avoided using the word sampling, but said issues regarding "scientific procedure" were brought up in the talks Thursday.
China has not announced any date for the discussions in Beijing, although other countries in the multilateral group have said they would take place on December 8.
Asked Thursday why China had not announced the date, Hill said: "I don't know, we are expecting to be in Beijing ... I'm not sure when it will be officially announced."
Pyongyang carried out a nuclear blast in October 2006, alarming the region and galvanizing the six-party negotiations that began in Beijing in 2003.
Hill is expected to hold meetings in Seoul Saturday, before heading to Beijing Sunday. --REUTERS
