US Envoy Returns to Seoul After Two-Day Visit to North Korea

Jun 22, 04:26 AM

Current Headlines: Text of report in English by South Korean news agency Yonhap

[Yonhap headline: "(lead) US Nuclear Negotiator Returns to Seoul After Surprise Visit to N. Korea (attn: Recasts Headline, Lead Paras; Updates With More Details)"]

SEOUL, June 22 (Yonhap) - The top US negotiator in international talks over North Korea's nuclear programme returned to South Korea Friday after a two-day trip to Pyongyang for talks on implementation of a February deal on the North's denuclearization.

Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill was quoted by media reports as saying he had "a good discussion about the way forward at the six-party talks," shortly before departing the North Korean capital.

Hill held a meeting with his South Korean counterpart Chun Yung- woo to brief him about his Pyongyang trip.

The two were scheduled to hold a joint press conference later in the day before Hill briefs South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min- soon about the outcome of his meetings with his North Korean counterpart Kim Kye-gwan and other ranking officials.

The US diplomat flew to Pyongyang Thursday from a US air base in Osan, south of Seoul, where he had arrived earlier from Japan.

Reports said Hill held talks with North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun. It was not immediately known whether the US diplomat met the North's reclusive leader Kim Jong Il.

The assistant secretary of state for Asian-Pacific affairs was the highest US official to visit the communist nation since his predecessor James Kelly travelled to Pyongyang in late 2002.

The trip came as the North has invited back officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for inspection of its nuclear facilities, in a reversal from its months-long refusal to implement the February accord.

In the agreement also signed by South Korea, the US, Japan, China and Russia, the North promised to shut down and eventually disable its key nuclear facilities at Yongbyon, but had refused to honour its commitments until its funds previously frozen at a Macau bank were released.

North Korea last week invited working-level officials of the IAEA to discuss the shutdown of the Yongbyon complex, saying the release of its US25m dollars at Macau's Banco Delta Asia has reached its "final phase."

The IAEA officials are expected to travel to Pyongyang early next week.

The chief US nuclear envoy is believed to have urged North Korea to shorten as much as possible the time required to shut down the Yongbyon facility to make up for what he has called "lost time" due to the banking issue, and move onto the next phase of disabling the complex.

"We are pleased the process is moving forward and what we want to do is continue to build momentum so that not only we can get through this initial actions, but move to the next phase which will involve...moving to the disablement of the Yongbyon facility," Hill told reporters following a meeting with his South Korean counterpart here Tuesday.

Chun, the South Korean nuclear envoy, said Thursday that he wanted to open an informal round of the six-nation talks in Beijing "before July 10."

Hill, apparently trying not to lose any more time, has called for the resumption of the six-party talks "immediately after the 4th of July."

(c) 2007 BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.