North Korea and the United States staked out vastly divergent positions yesterday at the opening of the first six-nation talks seeking to persuade the communist nation to abandon its nuclear programme since its provocative atomic test.The North insisted it be treated as a full-fledged nuclear power and that all sanctions against it be lifted before it would disarm. But Washington said time was running out for the North to dismantle its weapons and threatened yet more sanctions. "The supply of our patience may have exceeded the international demand for that patience, and we should be a little less patient and pick up the pace and work faster," chief US envoy Christopher Hill said.
The resumption of the six-way talks - consisting of China, Japan, Russia, the US and two Koreas - came after a more than 13-month break during which the North set off an underground atomic blast on October 9 and tested a new long-range missile in July.