(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-04-05 10:33

WASHINGTON  - Top US and North Korean nuclear negotiators will meet next week to try to break a deadlock in disarmament talks over how the North will account for its nuclear past.

Assistant US Secretary of State Christopher Hill will hold the talks with his North Korean counterpart, Kim Kye Gwan, on Tuesday in Singapore, State Department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters Friday. Hill will then travel to Beijing to report on the talks. China has been the host of stalled six-nation disarmament talks.

The North missed a December 31 deadline to produce a nuclear inventory and full disclosure of it proliferation activities. While other work to disable a nuclear reactor has continued, the delayed document has soured the atmosphere of talks meant to shutter North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

Earlier Friday, Hill said the standoff has gone on long enough.

"We don't have a lot of time. We really need to move on," Hill said in Jakarta, Indonesia.