The United States will not push forward the Korean Peninsula's disarmament process without a verification protocol, U.S. State Department said on Thursday.

"Verification is absolutely essential to this process. Quite frankly, it is not going to be able to move forward without agreement on a verification protocol," said spokesman Sean McCormack at the daily press briefing.

The remark came after the latest round of the six-party talks failed to break impasse over the verification of nuclear facilities in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

The six parties, namely the DPRK, the United States, the Republic of Korea, Japan, Russia and China, which are all involved in the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, ended their third meeting during the sixth round of talks with a chairman statement on Thursday evening in Beijing.

How to verify the DPRK nuclear facilities was the sticking point in the latest round of talks. After four days of intensive discussions, the six parties failed to reach an agreement on the issue.

"From our point of view, and I think this is a shared point of view certainly among the five parties, North Korea perhaps being the exception," said the spokesman, added that the United States will see if Pyongyang "will take that next step now to formalize it on paper among the six."

"This is a process that is action-for-action," said McCormack, adding "the United States is not going to move forward with further obligations absent a verification protocol."

Under an agreement reached at the six-party talks in February 2007, the DPRK agreed to abandon all nuclear weapons and programs, and also promised to declare all its nuclear programs and facilities by the end of 2007. In return, the DPRK would get diplomatic and economic incentives, including its removal from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.

After its nuclear envoy Christopher Hill paid a three-day visit to Pyongyang in early October and struck a verification deal with the DPRK to save the stalled six-party talks, the Bush administration dropped the country from the list on Oct. 11.

But the two countries have since disputed over the verification issue. The U.S. side claims that the inspectors, according to the deal reached with the DPRK, could take samples away from the nuclear facilities, while the DPRK insists that it never agreed to remove the samples.

(Xinhua News Agency December 12, 2008)