Deadlocked negotiations on dismantling North Korea's nuclear weapons programme broke up Thursday as Pyongyang apparently rejected a compromise proposal on procedures to verify its disablement, according to the dpa. In the latest round of the six-party talks, delegates from the United States, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea struggled with North Korea's continued refusal to allow nuclear inspectors to take soil and waste samples from its nuclear facility in Yongbyon, a means to verify how much plutonium for nuclear weapons the country produced. US chief negotiator Christopher Hill headed to Beijing's main airport late Thursday afternoon following a final meeting of the six delegation heads, a US embassy spokesperson said. North Korea on Wednesday rejected a draft by host nation China, which included a clause on environmental sampling. "There are several core contents in a (planned) verification protocol, especially scientific procedures including sampling," South Korean chief negotiator Kim Sook was quoted as saying after Wednesday's evening session by South Korea's official Yonhap news agency. "North Korea said it can't accept that. It gave fundamental and comprehensive reasons," Kim said. Hill said Wednesday the six nations had "not achieved our goal" and that the dialogue was "not trending in the right direction."
