By DPA
Geneva : Talks between the US and North Korea to jump-start the stalled negotiations over dismantling North Korea’s nuclear programme have resumed in Geneva.
US negotiator Christopher Hill told reporters Thursday as the talks got under way with his North Korean counterpart Kim Kye Gwan that he hoped for a “thorough discussion” adding: “I think it’s pretty critical to get moving on this now.”
The US claims Pyongyang had missed the agreed deadline of December 2007 to make a full declaration of its nuclear activities and disable its plutonium plant at Yongbyon. He said the process was now lagging ten weeks behind schedule.
“The declaration has to be a complete and correct declaration if we are going to get onto the next phase,” he said.
Last year North Korea agreed a breakthrough deal in six-party talks involving South Korea, China, Russia, Japan and the US, to shelve its nuclear weapons in exchange for badly needed energy and a package of security and diplomatic benefits.