BEIJING — The U.S. envoy at talks on dismantling North Korea’s nuclear weapons held out the possibility on Wednesday of agreement on first steps toward that goal, weeks after Pyongyang defiantly staged its first nuclear blast.

Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said U.S. and North Korean negotiators were fleshing out plans to set in motion a joint statement from September 2005 promising North Korea aid and security assurances in return for nuclear disarmament.

“Certainly we are talking about much more than just agreeing on things on paper. We’re discussing actual developments on the ground, and for that reason these discussions are not easy,” Hill told reporters after a third day of talks in Beijing. He added that agreement could come by Friday.

“We’d like to see if we can get an agreement that would constitute a first batch of elements for implementation pursuant to the September agreement.”

Hill’s remarks were the first hint of progress in the talks between the United States, the two Koreas, Russia, Japan and host China that resumed on Monday after more than a year’s break.

They came 10 weeks after North Korea held its first nuclear test, on October 9., drawing regional condemnation and U.N. sanctions backed even by its patient chief aid-provider, China.

The veteran U.S. negotiator warned differences could still scuttle a deal, particularly North Korean rancor over financial restrictions Washington invoked last year after determining North Korea had counterfeited U.S. cash and laundered illicit earnings.

“Nothing is agreed unless everything is agreed,” Hill said. “The North Koreans have always have shown they’re pretty tough on these issues.”

Other envoys said North Korea remained far from the other negotiating countries.

“Big gaps remain over basic positions,” Japan’s chief envoy, Kenichiro Sasae, told reporters.

But movement appeared to have come in the two-way talks between the United States and North Korea — two countries with a decades-old history of war and mutual suspicion.

“There was a lot of give and take and a lot of questions,” Hill said of the bilateral talks. “I think we understood their thinking better on some of these issues. We hope they understood our thinking.”

On Monday, North Korea’s chief negotiator Kim Kye-gwan laid out a sweeping set of conditions, including lifting U.N. sanctions and the U.S. financial curbs — demands that left Hill disheartened. But the North appears to have taken a more pragmatic tack in subsequent talks.

“The idea that I’d still be here Wednesday night telling you it was useful to continue — I frankly didn’t think I would be saying that,” Hill said.

“Nothing is agreed unless everything is agreed,” Hill said. “The North Koreans have always have shown they’re pretty tough on these issues.”

Other envoys said North Korea remained far from the other negotiating countries.

“Big gaps remain over basic positions,” Japan’s chief envoy, Kenichiro Sasae, told reporters.

But movement appeared to have come in the two-way talks between the United States and North Korea — two countries with a decades-old history of war and mutual suspicion.

“There was a lot of give and take and a lot of questions,” Hill said of the bilateral talks. “I think we understood their thinking better on some of these issues. We hope they understood our thinking.”

On Monday, North Korea’s chief negotiator Kim Kye-gwan laid out a sweeping set of conditions, including lifting U.N. sanctions and the U.S. financial curbs — demands that left Hill disheartened. But the North appears to have taken a more pragmatic tack in subsequent talks.

“The idea that I’d still be here Wednesday night telling you it was useful to continue — I frankly didn’t think I would be saying that,” Hill said.

Source: Reuters