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Missile talks

resume in

Berlin

BERLIN: Negotiators from the United States and North Korea began a second day of talks on Sunday to discuss Washington's concerns about Pyongyang's development and exports of ballistic missiles.

Chief U.S. negotiator Robert Einhorn made no comment as he arrived for the talks at the North Korean mission in Berlin.

He had emerged from more than 4-1/2 hours of talks on Saturday to proclaim the discussions had got off to a "useful start."

Neither side gave any details of what was discussed on Saturday, but Einhorn, deputy assistant secretary of state for non-proliferation, said he expected the first round to end on Sunday.

He declined to say if the delegations touched on a plan, unveiled by the U.S. and South Korean presidents on Tuesday, for China and North Korea to join them in seeking an accord to replace the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

Washington has said the talks in Berlin would focus solely on its worries about the communist state's development of long-range missiles and their sale to states such as Iran and Syria in unstable parts of the world.

But the talks were watched closely because they were the West's first face-to-face discussions with Pyongyang since Washington and Seoul proposed last week holding four-nation talks to secure peace on the divided Korean peninsula.-Reuter