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WASHINGTON: A new round of six-nation talks on scrapping North Korea's nuclear program will not be held this week as expected, the United States said Tuesday amid reports of a delay in Pyongyang's declaration of its nuclear weapons program.
There had been moves to hold an envoys' level meeting as soon as the end of this week but "logistically, that's not feasible at this point," Tom Casey, a State Department spokesman, told reporters.
He allayed concerns that the talks were put off due to a delay by Pyongyang to declare its nuclear inventory as part of its move to disband its atomic program in return for energy aid and diplomatic and security guarantees.
"I can assure you that, at least my best understanding is there is no substantive reason for the delay, that it is simply a matter of scheduling and logistics, and I would look for that meeting to take place in the near future," Casey said.
US nuclear envoy Christopher Hill, who began a rare visit to Pyongyang on Monday, said last week that he expected North Korea to submit the list of its nuclear program to Beijing, the host of the talks, before the end of this week.
He has stressed it must include all material, including a plutonium stockpile and any warheads.
Cho Hee-Yong, spokesman for South Korea's foreign ministry, said Tuesday that he understood the North had not yet handed over the list of its nuclear programs, which was to have been a key topic of the six-party talks originally expected to start Thursday.
"Considering the time needed, it appears it would be difficult to hold a new round of the six-party head of delegation talks this week," Cho said.
In Tokyo, Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura had said the initial proposal was for talks from Thursday to Saturday.
"But I heard difficulties arose and now various arrangements are being made," he told reporters in Tokyo on Tuesday after returning from talks in Beijing with leaders, including President Hu Jintao.
Casey said the Chinese were still trying to work out dates for the meeting "but that also, I should note, means in terms of Chris Hill's travel."
Hill would leave Pyongyang for Beijing on Wednesday and return Friday to Washington, he said.
The six-party negotiations involving the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, China and Russia began in August 2003 and were last held in September.
Since then, the communist North, which tested an atomic weapon in October 2006, has begun disabling plutonium-producing plants at its key Yongbyon nuclear facility.
It pledged to declare and disable its nuclear program by the end of 2007.
The State Department meanwhile said it would maintain nuclear sanctions on North Korea even if it removed the hardline nation from a US list of state sponsors of terrorism after it dismantled its atomic programs.
"Even if the designation of North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism were removed, significant legal barriers to nuclear cooperation with North Korea would remain, including several sanctions laws," said Jeffrey Bergner, the assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs.
He gave the assurance in a letter to Democratic legislator Edward Markey, a copy of which was released Tuesday by the lawmaker's office.
Markey, co-chairman of the House of Representatives bipartisan task force on non-proliferation, had earlier written to the State Department expressing concern that North Korea's removal from the terror list would reactivate a controversial light water reactor project and lead to possible nuclear cooperation.
North Korea had indicated following the six-party deal that on dismantlement of its nuclear facilities, construction of light water reactors offered to the Stalinist state during former president Bill Clinton's administration in 1994 would resume.
The US administration has asserted that the issue would be discussed only after North Korea had fully given up its nuclear weapons.
Bergner stressed that the United States has not proposed the resumption of the light water project, which "has been terminated." - AFP/ac
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