Hill says NKorea nuke talks to focus on checking declaration

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2008

BEIJING (AFP) — US nuclear envoy Christopher Hill said Tuesday this week's North Korea nuclear disarmament talks would focus on ways to verify a recent declaration of its atomic activities.

China announced talks would resume on Thursday in Beijing after a lengthy break, expressing confidence that the drive to end North Korea's nuclear programmes would pick up momentum.

"The verification is the most important thing. We want to speed up the rate of disablement (of its nuclear activities)," Hill said in Beijing after holding talks with his North Korean counterpart before the official start of the meet.

"Verification will probably take longer than just a few days, it will be weeks, and maybe months," he told reporters.

He also said: "Verification...