Beijing ? Talks on North Korea’s nuclear program were deadlocked Thursday as the communist nation stuck to its refusal to halt atomic bomb development until it receives a nuclear reactor to generate power.

The main U.S. envoy said the North was isolating itself from the other five countries at the talks, which aren’t inclined to fund a reactor or give nuclear technology to a country that withdrew from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and kicked out international inspectors.

“We’re in a bit of a standoff at this point,” U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said after 2 1/2 days of meetings.

The head of Japan’s delegation, Kenichiro Sasae, called the situation “extremely difficult” and said the negotiations were at a “deadlock.”

Quoting unidentified sources at the talks, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported that North Korea had told the other nations at the negotiations that it would boost its production of nuclear material if its demand for a light-water reactor is not met.

It was offered two light-water reactors as a reward under a 1994 agreement with the United States to give up weapons development brokered by the Clinton administration.