Deadlocked negotiations on dismantling North Korea's nuclear weapons programme broke up Thursday as Pyongyang apparently rejected a compromise proposal on procedures to verify its disablement, dpa reported.
In the latest round of the six-party talks, delegates from the United States, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea struggled with North Korea's continued refusal to allow nuclear inspectors to take soil and waste samples from its nuclear facility in Yongbyon, a means to verify how much plutonium for nuclear weapons the country produced.
US chief negotiator Christopher Hill headed to Beijing's main airport late Thursday afternoon following a final meeting of the six delegation heads, a US embassy spokesperson said.
North Korea on Wednesday rejected a draft by host nation China, which included a clause on environmental sampling.
"There are several core contents in a (planned) verification protocol, especially scientific procedures including sampling," South Korean chief negotiator Kim Sook was quoted as saying after Wednesday's evening session by South Korea's official Yonhap news agency.
"North Korea said it can't accept that. It gave fundamental and comprehensive reasons," Kim said.
Hill said Wednesday the six nations had "not achieved our goal" and that the dialogue was "not trending in the right direction."
In Washington, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the disarmament process cannot move forward until North Korea signs onto a verification agreement.
"It's safe to say that all the other members of the six-party talks supported this draft. So in that sense, North Korea on this question is isolated," McCormack said.
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi called a meeting of delegation heads to discuss the deadlock earlier Thursday.
"We hope all sides remain confident and patient, and show wisdom and the utmost flexibility as a way of achieving a positive result during the meeting," the Chinese foreign ministry quoted Yang as saying.
"Some common ground has been reached, but differences still exist," he said.
Yang said the talks had "made unprecedented progress" towards the goal of making the Korean peninsula free of nuclear weapons.
Foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said later Thursday that negotiations between the six nations were "still continuing" in other forms, including bilateral meetings.
Under a 2007 accord, North Korea vowed to give up its nuclear weapons programme in exchange for substantial economic and energy aid as well as improved diplomatic ties with the US.