The North Korean objections, although expected, underlined the difficulties negotiators face in newly resumed six-party talks here despite an improved atmosphere and what diplomats described as increased resolve to make progress toward banning nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula.
''The DPRK is a country that prides itself on being different, and this is certainly proving true in these negotiations,'' a senior U.S. official said, using the initials of North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. ''Things are not easy.''
As described by U.S. officials, the proposal first made in June 2004 would provide aid and security assurances to North Korea if it agreed to a schedule that would do away with its nuclear weapons program.
North Korean diplomats complained, the senior U.S. official said, that the proposal was front-loaded with demands that the Pyongyang government agree to dismantle its nuclear program and allow inspections by outsiders before receiving the security assurances and economic aid it has demanded in return.
Christopher Hill, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs and head of the U.S. negotiating team at the talks, underlined the U.S. approach in remarks Tuesday at this round's opening session. He said the goal in sequencing the give-and-take should be ''words for words and actions for actions.''
The U.S. proposal was portrayed when first proposed 13 months ago as a sign of flexibility designed to break the deadlock in the multinational talks. Since then, however, North Korea has altered the equation, announcing last February that it possesses nuclear weapons.
The senior U.S. official, who briefed reporters on condition his name not be used, said Wednesday that the administration's proposal still represented a basis for talks despite North Korea's demand for more simultaneity. But in the first two days of contacts, he said, the six delegations - China, Russia, Japan and South Korea in addition to the United States and North Korea - have mainly laid out their respective positions.
