New round and old questions for N.Korea nuclear talks

By Jon Herskovitz

SEOUL (Reuters) - Five regional powers will hold talks with North Korea from Thursday on ending its atomic weapons plans and verifying an account the secretive state gave in June of its nuclear programmes, officials said on Tuesday.

The talks, the first in nine months, come after Washington responded to the North's declaration of its nuclear assets by starting to take it off a terrorism blacklist. But Washington also called on Pyongyang to answer lingering questions on proliferation and uranium enrichment.

"We look forward to positive results from this heads of delegation meeting," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said when making the announcement for the talks.

Hosted by China, they also include the two Koreas, Japan, Russia and the United States.

This round of talks is provisionally scheduled to last for three days, Qin said.

South Korean envoy Kim Sook, who had released the date of the talks ahead of China's announcement, told reporters one key issue will be setting a verification mechanism to check claims North Korea made about its murky nuclear weapons programme.

Analysts said North Korea may sign off on an inspection programme but will delay further disarmament steps for as long as possible to squeeze out concessions.

"North Korea has no reason to reveal everything it's got," said Park Young-ho, an analyst at the South's Korea Institute for National Unification.