Negotiators from six nations continued talks aimed at agreeing on a "road map" for ending North Korea's nuclear programme on Friday, as differences remained over how North Korea should disable its facilities before finally dismantling them, according to dpa. US negotiator Christopher Hill said the six nations would begin considering a joint statement on Friday, but South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted Hill's South Korean counterpart, Chun Yung Woo, as saying "considerable" differences remained. "The bottom line is there are still some differences between what North Korea says it will do in the disablement-declaration phase and the level of what the other countries expect," Yonhap quoted Chun as saying late Thursday. Hill said agreement was reached on "most of the disablement measures" between the officials from North Korea, the United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia. "The joint statement is going to specify that the disablement and declaration have to be done by the year end," he told reporters late Thursday. Yonhap quoted Hill as saying the United States wanted a level of disablement that would make it hard for North Korea to re-enable its nuclear facilities within 12 months. He said North Korea was able to restart its previously frozen nuclear plants in just two months in 2003. Hill met his North Korean counterpart, Kim Kye Gwan, on Wednesday evening and on Thursday. After more than three years of six-party negotiations, North Korea agreed in February to abandon its nuclear programme in return for fuel oil shipments and the eventual normalization of US-North Korean relations that have been on ice since the 1950-53 Korean War. This week's talks are scheduled to end on Sunday.
