Nuke verification talks with N. Korea progress

? Negotiators at international talks aimed at disarming North Korea’s nuclear program struggled today to reach agreement on ways to verify the communist nation’s declaration of its atomic materials.

Top U.S. envoy Christopher Hill said a working group was hammering out the specifics of a verification protocol.

“We’re not asking for anything unusual. We’re asking for things that are done all over the world. We want a basically standard kind of package on how you verify this type of nuclear program,” he said today.

Once a procedure is established, Hill has said he expects the verification process could take weeks or even months.

Late Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said “some positive progress had been made,” with negotiators reaching a “principled consensus” on verification but that specific details still needed to be worked out.