Envoys at North Korea nuclear talks haggle over initial disarmament steps

(AP) Negotiators on North Korea's nuclear programs engaged in intense diplomacy Saturday to resolve remaining hurdles to a deal that would see the communist state take its first real steps to disarm.

U.S. envoy Christopher Hill said the negotiations boiled down to one or two unspecified sticking points after overcoming what he had considered "tough" issues.

"I am hopeful we can get through this," Hill said Saturday. "But with the North Koreans you never know what is important, so we will have to see. ... If we live in a logical, rational world, we will get through this."

Representatives from the six countries in the talks spent Saturday in various meetings, discussing a Chinese draft agreement outlining moves for North Korea to disarm and what sort of aid and guarantees it would get in return.

The U.S. as well as China, Japan, Russia and South Korea want North Korea to agree at the talks to make its first tangible steps toward abandoning its nuclear programs since the negotiations began in 2003. Amid one of the many deadlocks at the talks, the North tested its first nuclear bomb in October.

Officials gave few clues as to what the remaining sticking points were. But South Korean envoy Chun Yung-woo hinted it may be related to North Korea's long-standing demand that Washington drop its "hostile" policy toward Pyongyang.

"There is something that North Korea has said every time since long ago as to what should be the basis (for the agreement)," Chun told reporters Saturday. "Today and tomorrow will be the most critical part of the negotiations."

The Chinese draft proposal _ presented after North Korea agreed in principle at the start of this round of talks to take initial steps to disarm _ would grant the communist nation unspecified energy aid for shutting down its main nuclear facilities within two months, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.

North Korea is demanding it be given energy aid equivalent to 2 million kilowatts of electricity during the initial disarmament period, Yonhap said.

Japan's nuclear envoy Kenichiro Sasae said he expected China to submit a revised proposal after further discussions.

On Friday, Hill said without giving specifics that the North disagreed with wording in one paragraph of the new proposal.

Hill said two other key issues that have previously stalled the negotiations were not problematic this time. They include U.S. restrictions on a bank where the North held accounts for its complicity in alleged financial crimes, and demands that North Korea be given a nuclear reactor for generating electricity.

A pro-Pyongyang newspaper in Japan that has links to the North's government said Saturday that the North could even dismantle its main nuclear complex, but the problem is whether the U.S. would drop its hostile policy.

"The (North) won't take its first step toward denuclearization even if whatever aid is provided, as long as the U.S. does not switch over its policy," said the report.

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Associated Press reporters Jae-soon Chang and Burt Herman in Beijing contributed to this report