North Korea wants US to end 'hostile' policy at talks

North Korea will not abandon its nuclear weapons until the United States gives up what Pyongyang regards as a "hostile" policy towards it and drops financial sanctions, its envoy to nuclear talks said yesterday.

Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan added it was "too early to be optimistic" about progress at the talks, aimed at dismantling its nuclear programmes, which resume in Beijing tomorrow between the two Koreas, China, the United States, Russia and Japan.

US talks envoy Christopher Hill, speaking to reporters in Tokyo, said US hostility was focused on Pyongyang's nuclear policy, and that he expected to meet Kim today.

The comments were a sign the Beijing negotiations were starting off with the routine staking out of positions, with the key protagonists - North Korea and the US - their usual poles apart and expectations of a breakthrough low.

This talks session is the first since North Korea, defying international warnings, test-fired missiles in July and carried out a nuclear test in October, drawing UN sanctions.

The US wants measurable progress towards North Korea implementing the September 2005 six-party talks accord, in which Pyongyang agreed in principle to scrap its nuclear weapons in exchange for aid and security guarantees.

Still, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hinted at flexibility, saying in an interview with Reuters on Friday that the negotiations were part of a process and could not be judged by one session.

Rice insisted that UN sanctions imposed on Pyongyang for the October 9 nuclear weapons test would continue to be enforced even if the six-country talks in Beijing showed progress.

But she indicated flexibility on resolving a dispute over what Washington says is Pyongyang's counterfeiting of US dollars and money laundering, which led to freezing of North Korean accounts at the Macau-based Banco Delta Asia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned the US against further ratcheting up tension and singled out the US freezing of North Korean accounts, saying it had "stopped in its tracks" progress as North Korea boycotted the six-party talks for more than a year after November 2005, blaming the US-led financial crackdown.

Kim yesterday called for sanctions to be lifted before Pyongyang would abandon its nuclear weapons, though it was unclear if he was referring to the US financial curbs, the action taken by the United Nations, or both.