US envoy heads to six-way talks in Beijing

US envoy Christopher Hill headed Wednesday for talks on ending North Korea's nuclear programmes sounding cautiously upbeat about achieving progress. "A big question is whether the North Koreans are really ready to make some progress," Hill told reporters as he left Tokyo for the six-way talks in Beijing.

In preparing for the new round, which will begin Thursday, Hill held a rare direct meeting with North Korean negotiator Kim Kye-Gwan in Berlin in January. "We did have some good signs in Berlin. I think we also know that there is going to be rather hard bargaining. So let's see how we do," Hill said.

The talks group the two Koreas, China, Russia, Japan and the United States. In Tokyo, Hill said he hoped the Beijing talks would lead to concrete steps to implement a September 2005 deal under which the North agreed to scrap its nuclear weapons in exchange for energy and economic aid.

Hill said the negotiations could cover economic incentives. A Japanese press report said North Korea was demanding oil shipments to shut down a reactor. North Korea walked away from the six-way talks just two months after the 2005 deal to protest US financial sanctions on a Macau bank accused of handling counterfeit money for the North. North Korea only returned to the table in December 2006. In the meantime it had tested an atom bomb for the first time.

The December round produced little of substance, with an emboldened Pyongyang insisting on discussing the financial sanctions.

AFP