A week of diplomatic talks aimed at persuading North Korea to scrap its nuclear weapons ended with no progress today.
The six parties - the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and host China - agreed only to report to their capitals and "reconvene at the earliest opportunity", said a statement read by the chief Chinese negotiator.
Envoys had sought to focus on a September 2005 agreement that offered the North aid and security guarantees in return for disarmament, but Pyongyang remained preoccupied with getting US financial curbs against it lifted.
The six, meeting in the shadow of North Korea's first nuclear test on October 9th, "held useful discussions on measures to implement the joint statement and on actions to be taken by the parties in the first phase and put forward some ideas", the statement said.