GENEVA. Aug 7: Four-party Korean peace talks entered a third day Saturday, with diplomats reporting "glacierlike" progress at best, as fears of a North Korean missile launch continued to overshadow discussions. reports AFP.

The missile issue was not on the formal agenda of the talks, but largely dominates public comment, with a spokesman for Pyongyang's delegation saying North Korea would "never" give up its right to launch missiles.

"Our position is that we need missiles and when we get prepared for it. we will launch it." spokesman Pak Myung Guk told reporters before the third day of talks aimed at formally ending the 1950-53 Korean war.

"We will never change in that Eosition." he said as he left his otel for the conference centre where the talks are taking place.

The new round of Geneva

talks, between the two Koreas and their Cold War allies China and the United States, is the sixth session of negotiations aimed at ending the war since 1997.

North and South Korea never signed a formal peace treaty and are still technically at war.

The talks started last Thursday and were due to end Monday. But after two full days few signs of any advance were visible.

'The North Korean position has not changed." said South Korea's deputy delegation chief Song Min Sun. although he admitted dialogue had started after the simple presentation of positions in the opening sessions.

But he said: "It's like a glacier moving. It s very slow."

The head of the North Korean delegation was even gloomier. 'We are not expecting any progress." Deputy Foreign

Minister Kim Gye-Gwan told reporters late Friday.

"We are making every effort to reach an agreement. We are sincerely discussing with flexibility ... but we have fundamental differences in positions." he said.

The Geneva talks, launched in December 1997, aim to reduce tension on the Korean peninsula and forge a formal peace treaty to replace the current armistice which has held the peace since 1953.

The talks have consistently failed to produce results following the outright rejection by the United States and its ally South Korea to discuss demands for a troop withdrawal and a bilat-eral peace pact.

US officials said before the start of the latest talks they hoped for "small concrete steps". Other diplomats talk about "keeping the channels of dialogue open". Few talk of anything more substantial.