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SEOUL-A senior U.S. envoy ended a trip to North Korea on Friday aimed at saving a crumbling disarmament deal, saying he held substantive talks but declining to say if he swayed the state to give up plans to restart its nuclear plant.Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill had been in Pyongyang since Wednesday seeking a deal that would allow monitors into the secretive country to check claims it made about its nuclear program in exchange for better trading ties and better standing in the international community."I don't want to talk about progress," Hill told reporters in Seoul, saying he must first brief U.S. officials and other countries before releasing any details."I don't want to say I'm satisfied," Hill said, adding he had lengthy and substantive discussions about a verification system.Ahead of the discussions, Paik Hak-soon, an expert on North Korea at the South's Sejong Institute, said progress could be made if Hill offered a flexible plan to inspect the North's nuclear facilities.But Washington said it was offering no new concessions. Hill insisted the North must allow inspectors to check U.S. suspicions that it had a secret program to enrich uranium for weapons, which would give it another path to make a nuclear bomb."Chris was not going to Pyongyang with any new proposals regarding the substance of the verification regime," Sean McCormack told reporters in Washington.South Korea's chief nuclear envoy, Kim Sook, said after meeting Hill there could be a new round of six-way talks to discuss what had happened in Pyongyang.As in the days of Noah...
