US's special envoy to the six-party talks says negotiators have failed to make any progress over the nuclear disarmament of North Korea. The US envoy to the talks, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said on Wednesday that the six nations involved had made no progress on how to verify North Korea's account of its nuclear activity. Hill was speaking after the third and last day in the current round of discussions in Beijing.
"It's not trending in the right direction in terms of coming up with a verification agreement," he told reporters in Beijing on Wednesday. "We don't seem to be narrowing the differences."
The Chinese had earlier circulated a draft agreement to address the verification issue, but this reportedly failed to win the approval of all parties concerned. Discussions in the Chinese capital Beijing are focused on the exact wording of a Chinese-drafted protocol to monitor Pyongyang's nuclear activities.
It remains unclear how long the talks will last as they were originally scheduled to run for three days, starting on Monday. However, the envoys were scheduled to meet again Thursday morning, said Cho Yun-soo, a spokesman for the South Korean delegation, AP reported.
The United States, China, North and South Koreas, Russia and Japan took part in the six-nation talks. They were expected to discuss the issue of sampling at the North's nuclear sites as well.
Pyongyang says sampling violates its sovereignty and is not part of a disarmament-for-aid deal reached at the talks.
Hill had said earlier that sampling is "the core focus" of efforts to verify North Korea's disclosures about its atomic work. The two sides now differ on the terms of verification that were agreed upon as part of the previous deal.