Nuclear envoys continue talk on North Korea's denuclearisation

Beijing, Dec 9 (Xinhua) Top negotiators to the six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear programme began discussions on the second day Tuesday by focusing on the verification protocol of denuclearisation of the communist country.

The Beijing meeting is the first round of the six-party talks in more than five months. The six nations include China, the US, Russia, Japan and the two Koreas.

Addressing the opening ceremony of the meeting here Monday, China's top negotiator to the talks Wu Dawei proposed to focus on three major issues including verification, continuous implementation of the second-phase action plan and the establishment of a peace and security mechanism in northeast Asia.

On Monday night, Christopher Hill, head of the US delegation, said that the six parties had discussed three issues in the one-hour meeting, including fuel oil, the issues of disablement schedule and verification.

He said the Chinese delegation was preparing a verification protocol for the next day's discussion after a series of preliminary meetings with the other five parties.

The objective of the meeting is to convince North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons. But the negotiators have met with several roadblocks in the past few months, the latest being North Korea's refusal to allow nuclear inspectors to take environmental samples at its nuclear facilities.