BEIJING, Sept 6, SPA -- The United States remainswilling to remove North Korea from a list of terror-sponsoringstates as soon as the North agrees rules to check its nucleardisclosures, reuters quoted Washington's envoy in disarmament talks as saying onSaturday. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill made thecomments ahead of talks in Beijing aimed at shoring up steps todismantle North Korea's nuclear weapons programme in return foraid and diplomatic concessions. Envoys from Japan and South Korea have also gathered inBeijing for the latest talks. But top North Korea envoy KimKye-gwan did not appear at Beijing International Airport andfailed to show up for the talks in Beijing, Yonhap newsreported. "It was already expected that Deputy Foreign Minister Kimwould not visit China," an unidentified South Korean diplomaticsource was quoted as saying. "It appears that Kim has concluded that he would gainlittle from the negotiations, with his country having turnedhard-line already." North Korea started to disable its Yongbyon nuclearfacility in November, but halted that last month, angered thatWashington has yet to drop it from the U.S. list of statesponsors of terrorism. But Hill said Pyongyang had to agree first on rulesallowing inspectors to verify the declaration on its nuclearinventory submitted in June. "I think obviously we need to get from the North Koreansthe means by which we're going to verify the declaration," Hilltold reporters before heading for discussions with China'senvoy in the six-party nuclear talks, Wu Dawei. "Then we'll be prepared immediately to delist them from theterrorism list, which was our agreement." The terror list is one of a series of sanctions isolatingPyongyang economically and diplomatically. North Korea haspublicly exaggerated the intrusiveness of the verificationproposed by other countries in the talks, Hill said. "I know that the North Koreans have expressed concerns thatwe're looking at house-to-house searches. No one is talkingabout house-to-house searches," he said. Since 2003, China has sponsored the stop-start disarmamentnegotiations with North Korea, which also include the UnitedStates, South Korea, Japan and Russia. Seoul's representative in the talks, Kim Sook, said onFriday that efforts to defang North Korea's nuclear weaponsambitions had reached a "critical moment". But withoutPyongyang at the latest talks, a breakthrough over the weekendappears unlikely. Hill said on Friday he would be willing to meet NorthKorean officials while in Beijing, but said no such meeting wasplanned. --SPA www.spa.gov.sa/587818