N. Korea nuclear talks still deadlocked

? Diplomats seeking a basic agreement on nuclear disarmament of North Korea decided Thursday to soldier on with more talks despite fundamental differences that have left them deadlocked after 10 days of grueling negotiations.

Christopher Hill, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs and the chief U.S. delegate, said an accord proposed by China to govern dismantlement of North Korea’s nuclear programs has been accepted by five of the six nations involved in the talks: the United States, South Korea, Japan, Russia and China. The holdout, he told reporters, is North Korea itself.

“We want to denuclearize the Korean peninsula but we seek peaceful use : of nuclear activities,” North Korea’s chief negotiator, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan, told reporters in Beijing.