N. Korea Blames U.S. For Talks End

Six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear program ended Saturday without any major breakthrough, but a U.S. official declared them "very successful" and the governments involved promised to push ahead with diplomatic efforts. The North denounced the United States, saying it wasn't willing to reach a negotiated settlement.

The United States, North Korea and other governments agreed to hold more senior-level talks before July and form a lower-level working group to handle details involved in solving the 16-month-old dispute, officials announced.

The governments failed to agree on the U.S. demand that Pyongyang give up its nuclear program entirely, said the chief Chinese delegate, Wang Yi, who cited an "extreme lack of trust." But he said the North said it was ready to do so once Washington gives up what Pyongyang calls a "hostile policy" toward the isolated regime.

The North's delegate, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan, said he saw no "positive result" from the four-day meeting, the second round of six-nation talks organized by China.

"The U.S. delegation did not have an attitude to resolve the nuclear issue through peaceful negotiations," Kim said at a news conference.

The talks ended on a discordant note when the governments failed to issue a planned joint statement after they couldn't agree on North Korea's last-minute request to change its wording.

Despite that, the U.S. official said the atmosphere of two one-on-one meetings between the American and North Korean delegations was "much better" than during the previous round of talks in August.

"The event has exceeded my expectations," said the senior official, who spoke to a group of reporters on condition of anonymity. However, he added: "The devil is in the details."

The talks were "very successful in moving our agenda toward our goal of complete, verifiable, irreversible dismantlement of the DPRK's nuclear programs," the official said, referring to the North by the initials of its full name.

The United States repeatedly has demanded the comprehensive dismantling of the North's nuclear program, and refuses to grant concessions if Pyongyang freezes the program but does not abolish it entirely.

Other participants in the talks were South Korea, Japan and Russia. South Korea said it was "satisfied" with the talks.

Wang, a vice foreign minister, said the governments disagreed on the American demand for the North to give up its nuclear weapons program.

"The parties did not have consensus on this proposal or the scope of North Korea's giving up nuclear weapons," he said. However, he said, North Korea "made clear its readiness" to give up its weapons program "once the United States gives up its so-called `hostile policy' toward North Korea."

Kim said the North won't give up its nuclear activities that aren't related to weapons.

The United States affirmed that it had "no hostile intent" against the North, Wang said. "It has no intention to invade or attack North Korea," he said. "It has no intention to seek regime change."

The governments established what they called a framework to continue diplomatic work. Even before the talks started Wednesday, China warned that the dispute couldn't be solved in a single round of meetings.

"Some people think that not enough progress was made," Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said, thanking delegates at a closing ceremony. "But the speed of these negotiations is not very fast. ... The will of these participants is to seek peace."

There are still "some various serious differences," Li said. He said the disagreements "cannot be fundamentally resolved through one or two rounds of talks."

The closing ceremony was delayed more than three hours after North Korea requested changes in the joint statement to refer to "differences" among the governments, according to diplomats.

At the start of the ceremony, diplomats from five nations sat for several minutes live on Chinese television, waiting and appearing nervous before the North Korean delegation strode in. Kim was smiling broadly.

The statement was later issued by China under the title "chairman's statement" after delegates failed to agree on the North's request. But Wang, who read it out at a news conference, appealed to reporters not to dwell on such disagreements.

"There are plenty of them, which is an objective fact," he said. "I suggest you pay more attention to the positive."

Nevertheless, he acknowledged, "The main reason for these differences is the extreme lack of trust."

The parties met since Wednesday in the Chinese capital. They convened in August in a meeting that produced some discord but no substantive result.

North Korea and the United States have been at odds over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions for years and especially since October 2002, when U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly said the North told him it had a secret program based on enriched uranium — thus, Washington said, violating a 1994 agreement.

Kelly led the U.S. delegation to the Beijing talks this week.

North Korea publicly denies having a uranium program in addition to its known plutonium-based program, but it brandishes the threat of what it describes as its "nuclear deterrent" in an effort to extract concessions.

U.S. officials believe North Korea already has one or two nuclear bombs and could make several more within months. The North's five negotiating partners all say they want the Korean Peninsula to be nuclear-free.

South Korea, China and Russia offered the North crucial energy aid if it agreed to disarm.