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... [read full story]