 North Korea has said an early resumption of six-party talks on its nuclear arms programme will be difficult, and it wants to see how US President George W. Bush deals with Pyongyang following his re-election, Japanese and Chinese officials said on Thursday. Japan's top government spokesman said North Korean officials told their Japanese counterparts that Pyongyang was not keen to resume the multilateral forum anytime soon. "They said they were not in an environment where they could restart six-party talks in early stages," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda told a news conference. "We understand North Korea is not positive (on restarting the talks soon)." |