Negotiators from six nations began Thursday to hash out exactly how they will verify North Korea's declaration of its nuclear materials, the U.S. envoy said.
The first round of six-nation talks in nine months comes after North Korea handed over the much-delayed list of materials last month, then blew up the cooling tower of its main reactor to demonstrate its commitment to disarmament.
"All and all, it was a good start to the process, but I think the effort to negotiate a verification protocol will be very important," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill told reporters. He has said the actual verification process could take as long as several months.
The envoys have given the task of determining specifics of the verification process to a working group, Hill said. Though there are basic agreements that the process would include site visits, interviews with North Korean officials and examination of documents, "there's a lot of technical issues there," he said.
"We can't say how quickly it will happen," Hill added.
South Korean envoy Kim Sook said Thursday's talks were held in a "serious and businesslike atmosphere." Negotiators also touched on details of a meeting for the foreign ministers of the six countries and future steps in the disarmament process, he said.
Meetings on Friday were expected to focus on the issue of economic and energy assistance for North Korea, Hill said.
The energy-starved North was promised fuel aid equivalent to 1 million tons of oil under the February 2007 deal. Japan has since opted out of contributing, citing a lack of progress by North Korea in resolving the issue of its abductions of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and '80s. Pyongyang has complained that countries involved in the talks have supplied only 40 percent of promised energy shipments.
In response to North Korea's nuclear declaration, the United States had announced it would remove the North from a list of state sponsors of terrorism and relax some economic sanctions against the communist nation.
The exchanges paved the way for the resumption of the six-nation meetings in Beijing. The talks also include host China, Japan and Russia.
"I want to emphasize that all of us ... gathered here share the same strategic objectives," China's nuclear envoy Wu Dawei said at the start of the talks Thursday. "The ultimate objective is the realization of a nuclear-free Korean peninsula."
The nuclear standoff began in late 2002 when the U.S. accused the North of seeking to secretly enrich uranium in violation of a 1994 disarmament deal.
The architect of Pakistan's nuclear program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, told The Associated Press last week that he recalled uranium enrichment equipment being sent from Pakistan to North Korea in 2000.
The United States had previously insisted that North Korea detail its alleged uranium enrichment program as well as nuclear cooperation with Syria in the declaration.
But Washington has apparently backed down from that demand, drawing criticism from American conservatives who say the Bush administration is going too far to strike a deal with the North before leaving office next year.
Pyongyang's nuclear declaration, which was delivered six months later than the country promised, is said to only give the overall figure for how much plutonium was produced at its main Yongbyon nuclear complex _ but no details of bombs that may have been made.
Experts believe the North has produced as much as 110 pounds of weapons-grade plutonium, enough for up to 10 nuclear bombs.
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Associated Press writer Kwang-Tae Kim contributed to this report.
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