N.Korea eyes 2nd test if dispute not resolved

EFFORT REQUIRED

China's envoy to the six-party talks, Wu Dawei, told reporters that the next session could be relatively short, apparently placing an onus on negotiators, including North Korea's, to reach a deal this time.

"I hope the meeting can complete its talks in three to four days," Wu said. The success of the talks, he said, "requires efforts of all parties."

But U.S. officials have held out little hope of a quick resolution to the financial dispute, and Russia and South Korea also cautioned against expectations of a breakthrough.

"I think there is almost no chance of finding concrete, significant agreements during these talks," Russia's Alexander Losyukov, a deputy foreign minister, told Interfax news agency.

The Beijing-based source described the U.S. financial curbs as a "huge insult" to a sovereign country.

"If the United States does not resolve it, North Korea would be a 'sinner' taking part in the six-party talks ... North Korea would have no face and could not be on equal footing with the other parties at the six-party talks.

"The United States has no evidence, just like it had no evidence Iraq had weapons of mass destruction," the source said.

In Washington, the State Department said the U.S. view was that the financial dispute was separate from the six-way talks. "The financial discussions are not being held as part of six party talks and they are not related to issues of denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," spokesman Tom Casey told reporters.

The North Korean Embassy in Beijing declined to comment. The Chinese Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment.

(Additional reporting by Chris Buckley in Beijing, Jack Kim in Seoul, George Nishiyama in Tokyo and Maria Golovnina in Moscow)