North Korea delays talks on nuclear programme

North Korea plans to delay resuming nuclear discussions and has told China that there is no point in continuing the talks at all, a senior US official said yesterday.

North Korea plans to delay resuming nuclear discussions and has told China that there is no point in continuing the talks at all, a senior US official said yesterday.

The talks, which halted in late June, had been expected to resume at the end of September, focusing on a written assurance from the US not to attack North Korea. But North Korea, which has sought one-on-one talks with the US, has decided to wait until at least after the 2 November US presidential elections to restart talks, the official said.

China had already concluded that negotiations would not resume this month, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

US analysts are convinced that North Korea is on the brink of making several nuclear weapons. Negotiations became even more urgent after a blast in North Korea last week that produced a mushroom cloud near the Chinese border. The US official dismissed as dubious North Korea's explanation that the blast was the demolition of a mountain as part of a hydroelectric project. (AP)