N. Korea brings list of demands to talks

North Korea and the US stood poles apart yesterday as talks on scrapping the communist state's nuclear arms resumed after a year-long hiatus. Addressing the six-party forum, Pyongyang's chief delegate demanded an end to UN sanctions, US financial curbs and a reactor before it would consider disarmament.

In response to this "exhaustive list", chief US envoy Christopher Hill warned his interlocutor that Washington's patience had "reached its limits", said a source close to the first talks session since North Korea tested a nuclear device in October. North Korea's opening speech took a "department store approach", presenting "an exhaustive list of all its demands" and demanding that Washington end its "hostile policy" before Pyongyang would agree to rein in its nuclear programmes, a South Korean official told reporters.

The other five countries at the table - host China, the US, South Korea, Japan and Russia - want to see North Korea take concrete steps to implement a joint statement agreed in September 2005.

In that statement, North Korea agreed in principle to give up nuclear weapons in return for aid and security guarantees.

But North Korean chief negotiator Kim Kye-gwan said his country would not consider implementing the agreement until US and United Nations financial sanctions on it were lifted, the source said.

Washington imposed its financial curbs more than a year ago after determining that Pyongyang was engaged in money-laundering and counterfeiting American currency.