WAR.WIRE
US prepares new nuclear talks after NKorean deadline lapses
 WASHINGTON, Dec 31 (AFP) Dec 31, 2007
 The US government Monday said it was preparing new consultations with its partners after North Korea failed to meet a year-end deadline to come clean on its nuclear programs.

The State Department's top envoy on the issue, Christopher Hill, is expected to hold telephone talks with his counterparts from Japan, South Korea, China and Russia in the coming days, department spokesman Tom Casey said.

Casey confirmed that the Stalinist state had failed to deliver a declaration detailing its atomic activity by the December 31 deadline set out under a six-nation agreement.

"There has been no last-minute change," he told reporters. "It's unfortunate but we are going to keep on working on this.

"I expect there will be some consultations on this over the next few days among the parties to see how we want to proceed from here," Casey said.

"We're still committed to getting a declaration, and we want that declaration to be full and complete."

Under the six-nation pact, North Korea was required to disable its main nuclear plants by December 31 and declare all its nuclear programs and weaponry.

In exchange, the other parties had agreed to cooperate in economic and energy assistance to North Korea.

Japan and South Korea also expressed regret at the delay, which came amid a report that the communist state has slowed down the disabling work it began in November.

"We've always known all along that each step in this process was going to be more and more difficult," Casey said, reviewing progress and setbacks under the international drive to disarm North Korea's nuclear capability.

"The declaration is really critical to ensuring not only that this phase is completed, but that we be able to move forward successfully on the next and most important phase," he said, referring to a fully denuclearized North Korea.

Removal of fuel rods at North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear complex has been slowed by US insistence that the process fully meet international safety requirements.

But Casey said the North Koreans themselves were to blame for other delays, after Japan's Kyodo News said Pyongyang had told the US it was reducing the shifts of workers carrying out the disablement operation.

In any case, the North Korean declaration is widely seen as a political step which requires a strategic decision by the regime of Kim Jong-Il on how much it wants to reveal about its past nuclear activity.

"This can't be a situation where they pretend to give us a full declaration and we pretend to believe them," Casey said.