hankyoreh

Recently strained inter-Korean ties won't affect efforts to restart the six-way talks on Pyongyang's nuclear program, top U.S. nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill said Tuesday.

Hill played down a barrage of North Korean threats launched at the new South Korean government as characteristic propaganda aimed at the North's domestic audience.

"I think we should probably not overreact to those comments," Hill told reporters upon arriving at Incheon International Airport, just west of Seoul. The main purpose of his trip is to attend the opening ceremony of the Asia Society's Korea Center on Wednesday, but he will also consult with South Korean officials on the nuclear issue.

Earlier in the day, the Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the ruling communist party, warned that the Lee administration will face "irrevocable catastrophic consequences" if it takes a hard-line policy on the North.

It called President Lee a "traitor" and "U.S. sycophant."

The criticism came a couple of days after the North threatened to turn South Korea into "ashes" if it plans a preemptive military strike.

Hill expected no significant impact on the six-way talks.

"I don't think I will take fire extinguisher with me to the next set of talks," he said. "It doesn't really make any difference."

The envoy added that the stand-off between Pyongyang and Washington over the declaration of the North's nuclear activity won't last forever. North Korea claims it already provided the U.S.

with a list of its nuclear program as agreed upon, but U.S.

officials rejected it, saying it does not address suspicions on an uranium-enrichment program and proliferation to Syria.

He said the two sides have been narrowing differences since his talks with North Korea's nuclear envoy, Kim Kye-gwan, in Geneva last month.

"We had some progress in Geneva. We thought we had some progress after that," he said. "Obviously, we are getting to the point where we need to make some progress very quickly. But I don't have a specific deadline," he said.

Hill is scheduled to fly to Indonesia on Thursday.

INCHEON, April 1 (Yonhap)