U.S. tells N.Korea to fully declare nuclear activities

By Guy Faulconbridge

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The United States urged North Korea on Friday to give a full declaration of its nuclear activities after Pyongyang missed an end-2007 deadline for presenting the inventory under a disarmament-for-aid deal.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill held talks with Russia's chief negotiator in Moscow after a tour of Asia to discuss the deal, which would award fuel oil or aid for making the declaration and dismantling its nuclear facilities.

"They are obliged to give a complete and correct declaration, a declaration which would cover all their nuclear materials, all their nuclear facilities and all their nuclear programmes and any nuclear cooperation they have with anyone," Hill told reporters after talks.

"That is what we are expecting," he said, declining to give any new deadlines for the declaration.

North Korea says it has accounted for its nuclear programmes as required.

The United States says none of the countries party to the deal -- a result of six-party talks between the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia -- has seen the final declaration.

Russia's chief negotiator on North Korea, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov, expressed frustration with the speed of the process.

"We are unanimous in our regret at the slow movement we have within the process, but at the same time we recognise that this is a very difficult and bumpy road which we have to go along," he told reporters at a joint briefing with Hill.