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BEIJING: North Korean nuclear talks envoys headed to Beijing on Sunday despite serious doubts over the latest disarmament meeting after Pyongyang said it would refuse to recognise Japan.
US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill and South Korea's Kim Sook both left for the Chinese capital although officials here are yet to confirm the talks will start on Monday as planned.
North Korea said on Saturday that it would not recognise Japan, a participant along with China, the United States, South Korea and Russia in the talks since 2003, in protest at its refusal to provide promised energy aid.
"We will neither treat Japan as a party to the talks nor deal with it even if it impudently appears in the conference room, lost to shame," the communist country's foreign ministry said in a statement.
South Korea's Kim admitted he was "not very optimistic" about the talks as he boarded a plane to China.
"On the prospects of the six-party talks, we will have to see, but I am not very optimistic," Kim told Yonhap news agency.
Hill also predicted difficult discussions after preparatory meetings with his North Korean counterpart Kim Kye-Gwan last week.
The talks are scheduled to discuss ways of verifying North Korea's declaration of its nuclear facilities.
Under a 2007 pact involving the two Koreas, Japan, the United States, Russia and hosts China, Pyongyang agreed to disable facilities at its plutonium-producing Yongbyon nuclear complex and reveal its atomic activities.
In return, it was to get one million tonnes of fuel oil or energy aid of equivalent value. About half has been delivered.
Japan has withheld its share until North Korea accounts fully for Japanese nationals kidnapped by Pyongyang during the Cold War.
The North has admitted it seized Japanese to train its spies and in 2002 let five return. It says the others are dead but Japan believes they are alive.
In October, after reaching an apparent agreement on verification procedures, the US said it would drop North Korea from a terrorism blacklist, and the North reversed plans to restart its plutonium-producing nuclear plants.
However, North Korea, which tested an atomic weapon in October 2006, is now reportedly opposing the idea of atomic samples being taken away by inspectors.
China said last week it was confident the talks would go ahead on Monday but the foreign ministry declined to confirm that on Sunday when contacted by AFP.
The US State Department also has said it had received no official confirmation.
- AFP/yt
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