BEIJING, Aug 3: Tough North Korean nuclear arms talks stalled on their ninth day on Wednesday as the parties struggled to finalise agreement on the basic principles for ending a three-year standoff with the Stalinist regime. Only North Korea among the six participating nations refused to approve a fourth draft of a joint statement prepared by host China on how North Korea might abandon its atomic arsenal and what it would get in return.

“We are confident that the Chinese will continue to work very hard to get the DPRK (North Korea) signed on to the draft as they have done with all the other participants,” chief US delegate Christopher Hill said late Wednesday.

Hill was speaking to reporters after returning from the conference venue where China met separately with the other delegations, which also include South Korea, Japan and Russia, to hear their comments on the draft. As he spoke at his hotel, his North Korean counterpart Kim Kye-Gwan was also seen returning to the North Korean embassy in a convoy. He did not make any comment to waiting journalists.

Chinese and Japanese officials said the six parties were scheduled to meet again on Thursday at a level and time to be decided later. Without going into specifics on the disagreements, Hill said the United States, Russia, Japan and South Korea “are essentially on board with the Chinese draft.”

“I don’t want to pressure them (North Koreans) but they have to make the decision. It is an important decision,” said Hill, the assistant secretary of state for Asian and Pacific affairs.

“Clearly, this is a country suffering from a profound number of problems. None of these problems can be solved with nuclear weapons,” he added. South Korea’s chief delegate Song Min-Soon earlier said the framework agreement centred on North Korea dismantling its nuclear weapons in return for a normalisation of ties with the United States and Japan.

Citing sources, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported that it included the provision of a security guarantee and electricity and fuel oil aid to the impoverished North.

But it does not include a key North Korean demand for concessions to be delivered simultaneously with the dismantling of its atomic weapons programme, Japan’s Kyodo agency said. The United States has persistently demanded that the North must dump its weapons programmes before it gets aid and energy.—AFP