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SINGAPORE - North Korea called Wednesday on the United States to drop its "hostile policy" and reward it for efforts to rid the country of nuclear weapons, as high-level talks took place here.
Ri Dong-Il, a North Korean foreign ministry spokesman, said moves to drop Pyongyang from a US list of state sponsors of terrorism in August was not enough of a response to its denuclearisation efforts.
"On the United States side, they also took an action although it is incomplete," he told reporters on the sidelines of unprecedented talks between foreign ministers of the "six-nation" negotiations on North Korea.
"I think what is most important is to lift the sanctions fully and in a full-phase way to drop the hostile policy against the DPRK," he told reporters, using the country's formal name.
On July 12, Pyongyang agreed to completely disable its main weapons-grade plutonium-producing facilities by the end of October and to allow thorough site inspections to verify the June declaration of its nuclear programmes.
But so far North Korea has not approved a proposed verification mechanism, and Wednesday's talks focused on this issue -- the second phase of a three-stage denuclearisation process.
Ri said progress had been made in the second phase due to his country's "sincere efforts" including a declaration of its nuclear activities and the destruction of a cooling tower.
"It shows the willingness of the DPRK to denuclearise the Korean peninsula and to contribute to peace and stability in northeast Asia," he said.
Ri would not say whether or not North Korea would accept the verification protocol.
But he indicated that Pyongyang wanted a mechanism that would also monitor the promised aid assistance destined for North Korea if the denuclearisation process is successful.
In return for the deactivation of the nuclear facilities, the other five parties are to deliver oil assistance to North Korea as agreed to in a landmark pact reached last year.
Foreign ministers from the six countries negotiating the North Korean nuclear issue -- North and South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States -- met here for an hour and 20 minutes.
"It was a good meeting, no surprises. The atmosphere was very good... It wasn't a stand-off with everyone stating their positions. It was interactive," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters.
She met her North Korean counterpart Pak Ui-chun for the first time at the talks, and the pair shook hands twice.
- AFP /ls
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