Six-party N. Korea nuke talks resume

BEIJING, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- Six-party talks over North Korea's nuclear program resumed Monday in Beijing, five months after they adjourned with a timetable agreement, officials said.

Negotiators from the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan say they will now try to draw up a protocol on monitoring Pyongyang's declared 40 kilograms of enriched plutonium, KBC World Radio reported.

China, acting as the lead country in the talks, was set to collect the opinions of each country Monday and, by Tuesday, draft a document that will lay out the methods and the timing of the nuclear verification process, the broadcaster said.

The last round of talks ended with an agreed timetable for North Korea to resume disabling its nuclear facilities, but Pyongyang later balked at the deal, demanding the United States first take it off its list of state sponsors of terrorism. Washington did so in October, CNN reported.