Beijing – The top U.S. envoy held his longest meeting yet Thursday with his North Korean counterpart and said he hoped they would soon be able to draft a joint document that would signal some progress in talks aimed at curbing the North’s nuclear ambitions.
Such a document of “agreed principles” would indicate a new level of dialogue between the two countries – and came amid renewed promises for progress in the negotiations, which today will become the longest round of nuclear talks between the U.S. and North Korea in more than a decade.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill and others have stressed they don’t expect any breakthroughs. “We have a long way to go still,” he said. “There’s certainly some points of agreement, but there continues to be points of disagreement.”
Thursday’s bilateral meeting – held as part of six-nation talks – was “maybe the first time both sides talked so deeply, so concretely and for such a long time,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alexeyev, the chief Russian delegate.
Hill said he hoped to start drafting a statement “in the next 24 hours” with results of the talks so far – a possible indication that negotiations were inching forward.
