N Korean nuke talks struggle to issue joint statement
Reuters, Beijing
Negotiators at six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear programmes struggled yesterday to thrash out a joint statement of principles that has eluded them for nearly three years.The tortuous Beijing talks, now into their sixth day, looked set to drag on. Despite an unprecedented flurry of one-to-one meetings, the main protagonists, Washington and Pyongyang, still appeared far apart on the critical issue of how and when the North's nuclear weapons programs should be dismantled. Chief negotiators from the two Koreas, China, the United States, Russia and Japan left it to deputies to haggle over the text of the draft statement put forward by China, with the aim of producing a joint document that all parties could sign.
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