During the second phase of the fifth round of talks, which resumed in Beijing after a 13-month standoff, diplomats from Russia, China, the United States, North and South Korea, and Japan attempted to reach agreement on North Korea's nuclear disarmament.
The source said Pyongyang continued to insist that the U.S. lift its financial sanctions imposed late last year following accusations that North Korea was printing counterfeit dollars and laundering money through foreign banks. Washington ordered Macao-based Macau Delta Asia bank to freeze North Korean accounts holding $24 million.
A symbolic ceremony will crown the negotiations Friday when the host country, China, will make a statement reiterating the six nations' commitment to further negotiations in the same format.
However, Japan's envoy Kenichiro Sasae said earlier Friday that the format of the negotiations might be revised. "There is doubt as to the viability of the six-party format of the talks," he said.
Sasae said Thursday that the talks stalled over North Korea's inflexible position on financial sanctions.
The negotiations shifted to a bilateral format Wednesday, and the delegations gathered at the negotiating table Friday to reaffirm the importance of further negotiations and the willingness of all sides to reach positive results.
In September 2005, North Korea signed a "joint statement" committing itself to abandoning its nuclear program in exchange for aid and security guarantees. But the country boycotted the six-party talks two months later following Washington's financial sanctions. Since then, North Korea has conducted its first nuclear bomb test and also tested ballistic missiles.
At the resumed talks this week, Pyongyang has demanded that the sanctions be lifted and also insisted on its status as a nuclear power, which means that negotiations, initially launched in 2003 to persuade the North to give up its nuclear ambitions after it withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, could switch to an arms reduction track.
