U.S. and North Korean officials ended three days of discussions in Berlin on Thursday with no word on chances of a breakthrough at six-party talks on the communist state's nuclear weapons programme, Reuters reported. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the chief U.S. delegate to those talks, left the German capital for Asia, the U.S. embassy said. He made no statement after his informal discussions with his North Korean counterpart, Kim Kye-gwan. In Washington, White House spokesman Tony Snow said Hill was going to Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo and would likely talk to Russian officials at another venue. Earlier this week, Hill called his Berlin discussions "useful" but played down suggestions they might lead to a breakthrough in the standoff with Pyongyang, which detonated its first nuclear device last October. U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said Hill and Kim had exchanged views on a number of proposals made at the last six-way meeting in December. "We want to make sure that the (next) round is well prepared when it happens," he added. North and South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States participate in the talks, which are aimed at persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear arms ambitions.
