Christopher Hill, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs and top U.S. negotiator for the six-party talks, speaks to journalists at the China World Hotel in Beijing September 14, 2005. Hill dismissed North Korea's demands to be allowed a civilian atomic energy programme on Wednesday, the second day of negotiations in Beijing. Hill instead urged the North to focus on a draft joint statement, which sets out the principle of a nuclear-free Korean peninsula and contains an offer from South Korea to provide conventional energy to its impoverished neighbour. REUTERS/Claro Cortes IV