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Christopher Hill, the U.S. chief envoy to six-party talks, said Wednesday the five nations have an agreement with North Korea ¡°on the general principles of what's involved¡± in verifying the North¡¯s nuclear declaration. This includes ¡°interviews with their people,¡± Hill said. ¡°We have an agreement on providing documents and doing site visits. But there are a lot of details that need to be fleshed out."
After a meeting with North Korean top negotiator Kim Kye-gwan, Hill said this week¡¯s talks will be ¡°the verification six-party meeting.¡± But he added there is a long way ahead: ¡°The devil is in the details.¡± These will be dealt with by delegation heads and working-level conferences. According to one diplomatic source, the six countries will adopt a verification plan containing the basic principles, while the protocol will be finalized in a meeting of working-level officials.
North Korea and the U.S. reportedly differ on carrying in equipment for verification, notifying the North of field inspection in advance, the subject and the duration of verification, and who will bear the cost. Pyongyang is reportedly insisting on early confirmation that Japan will join economic and energy aid for the North in order for the talks to proceed.
After a meeting with his North Korean counterpart Kim Kye-gwan at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, South Korea's top envoy Kim Sook said, ¡°I felt a lot of effort needs to be put into this because each party has different priorities and different perspective on the issues.¡± The heads of delegation will meet at 4 p.m. on Thursday and discuss how to verify the declaration of nuclear programs and stockpiles submitted by North Korea based on the results of the bilateral talks held Tuesday and Wednesday.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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