No early end to North Korea nuke deadlock: South Korean FM

The deadlock in international efforts to scrap North Korea's nuclear programmes is likely to continue for some time to come, South Korea's foreign minister warned Monday.

Song Min-Soon told reporters that Seoul had consulted fellow negotiators on ways to resume the six-nation talks "but it looks difficult to get a tangible result for the time being."

Separately, the communist North's state media criticised Jay Lefkowitz, US President George W. Bush's envoy on human rights in North Korea, who said in a January 17 speech that Pyongyang was not serious about disarming.

He called for a new approach linking human rights to the engagement policy, but was sharply put down by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

A statement by the Korean Central News Agency said Lefkowitz brought shame after being "impudent enough to poke his nose into the nuclear issue."

The North Korean agency accused Lefkowitz, former UN ambassador John Bolton and others of seeking to exploit the denuclearisation process "for achieving their political ambition under the slogan of hard-line and conservative policy which has already proven bankrupt inside the US."

Under the current phase of a six-nation deal negotiated by the two Koreas, China, the United States, Russia and Japan, the North was supposed to disable its main atomic plants by December 31 and list all its nuclear programmes.

The North said it submitted a list in November, but the United States says it failed to meet the deadline for a full declaration.

The impoverished nation blames delays the deadlock on negotiating partners for failing to honour their side of the bargain, especially Washington for not starting the process of removing the North from its list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Under the deal, the North was also due to receive up to one million tons of fuel oil or equivalent energy aid, but only a small part has been delivered.

Washington says it will not move on delisting until it receives a complete declaration, including a full account of a suspected covert uranium enrichment programme.