US, North Korea talks end without agreement

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
North Korea's nuclear envoy said Thursday his country won't unilaterally abandon its atomic weapons program after two days of meetings with his US counterpart failed to produce a date on restarting six-nation disarmament talks. There had been hopes that the discussions between North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan and Christopher Hill, the US assistant secretary of state, in Beijing would result in an agreement on when to resume the multination negotiations that have been stalled for over a year. But Kim, after meeting South Korea's main nuclear negotiator Chun Yung-woo on Thursday in the Chinese capital, said Pyongyang still remains committed to an agreement made last year on denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. "Our denuclearization is the great leader's (Kim Il Sung's) 'dying instruction' and we are ready to implement our commitment in the Sept. 19 joint statement," Kim said, referring to the leader of North Korea from its founding in 1948 until his death in 1994, when he was succeeded by his son Kim Jong Il.