Hill in China to fix date for North Korea talks

By Staff
|
Google Oneindia News

Beijing, Jan 21: US envoy Christopher Hill arrived in China today to work on a date for resuming six-country talks on North Korea's nuclear arms programmes, amid signs of optimism about the long-running negotiations.

Hill arrived in Beijing to brief China's chief negotiator, Wu Dawei, about talks he held last week in Berlin with the North's top six-party envoy.

''We'd like to talk to the Chinese government about scheduling the next round of six-party talks,'' Hill told reporters at Bejing airport.

China is host of the talks, which began in 2003 and are aimed at persuading impoverished Pyongyang to scrap its nuclear arms development.

North Korea said through its official KCNA news agency on Friday only that it had reached a ''certain agreement'' with the United States at the talks in Berlin.

Hill flew in from Tokyo, where he expressed hope yesterday that the next round could make progress.

'VERY CONCRETE' ''I would say those meetings in Berlin were indeed useful.

They were very concrete. We discussed some of the specific issues we would need to negotiate in the six-party talks,'' Hill said after meeting his Japanese counterpart, Kenichiro Sasae.

''We hope that this time we can make some real progress,'' Hill added.

The last round of talks took place in December, just two months after a defiant nuclear test by the North triggered UN sanctions. They ended inconclusively.

North Korea wants the United States to end a crackdown on North Korea's external financing that prompted Pyongyang to suspend its participation in the six-party talks for a year.

The talks aim to implement a September 2005 deal, under which North Korea would abandon the nuclear option for aid and security guarantees.

Hill said in Tokyo that he had agreed in Berlin with the North's envoy, Kim Kye-gwan, to resume the six-way discussions soon.

Before visiting Tokyo, Hill briefed officials in South Korea on his Berlin talks.

Hill and South Korean envoy Chun Yung-woo said in Seoul on Friday that they hoped the next round of talks would start before the February 18 Lunar New Year.

The sixth country in the talks, in addition to the two Koreas, China, the United States and Japan, is Russia.

REUTERS

For Daily Alerts
Get Instant News Updates
Enable
x
Notification Settings X
Time Settings
Done
Clear Notification X
Do you want to clear all the notifications from your inbox?
Settings X
X