North Korea snubs nuclear monitors

INTERNATIONAL talks on North Korea’s nuclear programme stalled yesterday, envoys said, after the communist regime snubbed a Chinese proposal outlining how monitors could verify its past atomic activities.

North Korea was refusing to allow outside inspectors take samples from its main nuclear complex at Yongbyon — a key method of checking whether the country was honest in its accounting of its nuclear programmes.

China offered a proposal on the tricky issue but the top US negotiator, Christopher Hill, said North Korea was not compromising during talks on Wednesday.