US envoy Christopher Hill arrived in China yesterday to hammer out plans for the next round of six-
nation talks on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
Hill will meet his counterpart Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei (
In Japan on Saturday, Hill described one-on-one talks with his North Korean counterpart Kim Kye-gwan in Germany last week as "substantial" but declined to confirm a report that six-way negotiations would resume on Feb. 6.
"They were very concrete. We discussed some of the specific issues that we would need to negotiate in the six-party talks but in no way are those meetings in Berlin a substitute," Hill said.
The talks -- bringing together North and South Korea, the US, China, Russia and Japan -- made little tangible progress in the last round in Beijing last month.
International concern has intensified since North Korea, one of the most isolated and impoverished countries in the world, tested a nuclear weapon in October.
The test led to UN sanctions and even condemnation from China, Pyongyang's lone major ally, but the regime has repeatedly insisted that the US must lift financial sanctions against it.
On Saturday, Hill voiced hope that "the next session, whether it's a late January or an early February session, does achieve more progress."
He said that would mean implementing a September 2005 statement under which North Korea agreed in general terms to give up its nuclear program in exchange for aid and security guarantees.
North Korea walked out of the talks two months later to protest the US sanctions. It returned to the table only last month after testing its first nuclear bomb on Oct. 9.
The last session saw no tangible progress, with an emboldened North Korea sticking to its demands that the US stop blacklisting a Macau bank accused of laundering money on behalf of the impoverished state.
Hill said the US Treasury Department would resume talks in the coming week or the week after with Pyongyang about Macau's Banco Delta Asia, which holds US$24 million in frozen North Korean funds.
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