U.S. and North Korean diplomats acknowledged an irreconcilable deadlock Thursday in stalled nuclear disarmament talks, throwing into doubt the future of Chinese-sponsored six-party negotiations that have been under way for more than two years without result.
The stalemate, over North Korea’s demand for a light-water nuclear reactor to produce electricity, brought the current round of discussions to a rancorous standstill after three days of fruitless arguing. None of the six nations involved appeared ready to abandon the negotiations immediately, however, nor could anyone outline how to keep them going given the clear-cut U.S.-North Korean disagreement.
See also “Why China’s Not Backing Bush on Iran” from Time Magazine. More on this topic, via Google News.
