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WORLD / Asia-Pacific
US, N.Korea nuclear envoys meet in China
(AP)
Updated: 2007-07-17 16:02
BEIJING - The chief US nuclear envoy met Tuesday with his North Korean
counterpart ahead of the first six-nation talks on Pyongyang's nuclear
program since DPRK shut down its sole operating nuclear reactor.
United State's chief negotiator Christopher Hill arrives at the airport
in Beijing, China, Tuesday, July 17, 2007. Six-party talks are expected
to resume at the Chinese capital. [AP]
The North Koreans went to the US Embassy for talks, and Assistant
Secretary of State Christopher Hill and North Korean Vice Foreign
Minister Kim Kye Gwan later headed to lunch together - showing that the
negotiations were starting on an amiable note in the wake of the Saturday
reactor closure.
"We just had a nice lunch, not a lot of specific discussions," Hill told
reporters outside a restaurant in the Chinese capital. "The atmosphere
was very businesslike."
Hill said he would meet Kim again later Tuesday before the countries -
along with China, Russia, Japan and South Korea - open formal arms talks
Wednesday.
Kim declined in brief comments to give any specifics of his meeting with
Hill, saying after the lunch that the two "had a casual talk."
The shutdown of the Yongbyon reactor was North Korea's first step toward
halting its nuclear program since the nuclear standoff began in late 2002.
Talks this week were expected to focus on having North Korea's pledge to
declare all its nuclear programs and then disable them so they cannot be
easily restarted - followed by their eventual dismantlement.
Before leaving Pyongyang, Kim told broadcaster APTN that closing the
reactor meant the process was moving into a second phase.
"There should be discussion on how to define the targets of the second
phase, the obligations for each party, and also the sequence of the
actions," he said at the airport.
South Korean nuclear envoy Chun Yung-woo said the closing of the nuclear
reactor was important, but only a first step.
"There is a very difficult and steep road ahead of us. We need to make
sure that North Korea won't become hesitant or lose interest in going up
that difficult and steep road," he said after arriving in Beijing.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters in Washington
that the next stages in disarmament are going to be hard, but that the US
wants to see things move ahead "with some rapidity."
When asked about North Korea's demand it be removed from a list of
terrorism-sponsoring states, McCormack said it would be important for
North Korea to continue to work with Japan on an abductions issue.
Japan has opted out of the aid provision part of the February deal,
citing a lack of progress by North Korea in resolving the abductions of
its citizens by Pyongyang during the 1970s and 1980s.
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