The United States said yesterday that it will be difficult to continue sending aid to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) before Pyongyang agrees to the nuclear verification protocol.

"Without a verification protocol, we don't see how we're going to be able to go forward and provide these shipments," State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood told a news briefing.

"I think there's an understanding amongst the five parties that, in the absence of that verification protocol, it's going to be hard to go forward with fuel shipments," Wood said.

The five stands for the United States, the Republic of Korea, Japan, China and Russia. The five countries and the DPRK have been holding six-parties talks over the settlement of the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue since August 2003.

Washington announced last week that it would suspend fuel shipments to the DPRK until Pyongyang accepts the verification protocol of its nuclear facilities when the latest round of the six-party talks ended on Dec. 11 without a deal on nuclear verification.

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 US 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 deal. The US 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.