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North Korea Nuclear Talks to Continue Through Sunday
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(http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=F0618A:3919ACA

Negotiators consider compromise proposal prepared by Chinese, meant to
break impasse over North Korea's insistence on having civilian nuclear
program - and US opposition to it





Japanese chief negotiator Kenichiro Sasae, center, leads members of
his delegation, ahead of nuclear talks, SaturdayNegotiators at
multi-party talks on North Korea's nuclear programs have agreed to
continue talking through Sunday in an effort to break the current
deadlock. In Beijing, diplomats from six nations have been discussing
a revised proposal for a set of basic principles to guide the talks.

The talks appeared to be on the verge of collapse Saturday, when
China's state-run Xinhua News Agency announced that all sides had
agreed to keep talking until at least Sunday.



Negotiators are considering a compromise proposal prepared by the
Chinese that is meant to break the impasse over North Korea's
insistence on having a civilian nuclear program - and U.S. opposition
to it.









Christopher HillTop U.S. envoy Christopher Hill indicated the talks
were reaching a critical moment. He gave no indication of what
Washington's reaction to the Chinese proposal would be.

"The Chinese have given us a text to react to or some ideas to react
to. So we are looking at those, and we are having some internal
discussions," he explained.

Russia's chief delegate indicated Friday that the Chinese proposal
would allow North Korea peaceful nuclear energy, but after it
abandoned its atomic weapons programs.

Reading from a prepared statement in Beijing Friday, North Korean
spokesman Hyun Hak Bong told reporters his country would not give up
its current nuclear activities unless it gets a new, more modern
reactor - supposedly for the generation of electricity.

"If the United States keeps saying it cannot give us the light-water
reactor, on the basis of trust, then we cannot stop working on our own
way of peaceful nuclear activities for one minute," he said.

The United States says North Korea should accept the offer that was
formulated by China last month, as the fourth round of six-party
negotiations since 2003 began.

U.S. officials say that plan includes everything the impoverished
Communist state had said it wanted, including massive energy
donations, economic aid, and security guarantees, in exchange for
dismantling its nuclear programs.

The talks, which also involve Japan and South Korea, resumed on
Tuesday after a month-long recess for North Korea to consider the
earlier proposal.


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