Envoys see tough haggling ahead with North Korea

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By Emma Graham-Harrison

BEIJING (Reuters) - A top U.S. envoy predicted tough talks on North Korea's nuclear activities on Monday as a fresh round of negotiations over a disarmament-for-aid deal began with the Bush administration readying to leave office.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, speaking ahead of the six-party talks in Beijing, said the latest session of the stop-start negotiations would focus on how to verify North Korea's declaration of its nuclear programme.

After months of contention over disarmament steps, Hill was cautious about progress this time around. The talks began in the late afternoon, Xinhua news agency said.

This is likely to be the last round of the six-way negotiations before U.S. President George W. Bush leaves office. Many analysts have said North Korea is unlikely to make any serious moves before U.S. President Elect Barack Obama takes over in January.

"We're not trying to solve all the problems, but we have several items that we have worked hard to get ready," Hill told reporters before a warm-up meeting with Chinese officials.

"We all know what we're supposed to get accomplished here and, like all these six-party meetings, it will be difficult negotiations."

South Korea's nuclear envoy, Kim Sook, said the North was at least talking to the United States. Hill and his North Korean counterpart met for warm-up talks in Singapore last week. But Kim held out little hope for major movement in the Beijing talks.

"I'm afraid nobody among my counterparts showed any optimism in the prospect of the coming six-party talks," Kim told reporters in Beijing.

Negotiators are focussed on coaxing Pyongyang into accepting verification rules to check a formal listing of its nuclear activities it gave in exchange for aid and improved diplomatic standing.

The talks bring together North and South Korea, China, the United States, Japan and Russia. North Korea held its first atomic test explosion in 2006 and since then the on-again-off-again talks, begun in 2003, have made halting progress.

The most recent contention has been the North's reluctance to allow international inspectors to take nuclear samples out of the country for testing.

Washington maintains Pyongyang is obliged to allow such tests. But many analysts do not expect North Korea to make any serious moves until Obama takes office.

On Saturday, North Korea also said it would ignore Japan at the talks, further testing ties damaged over North Korean agents' kidnappings of Japanese nationals decades ago.

Japan has said it will not join in providing aid to North Korea unless the matter of its abductees has been solved.

(Writing by Chris Buckley; Editing by Nick Macfie and Dean Yates)

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