US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill began a rare visit to North Korea yesterday, at the start of a crucial week in international efforts to scrap the North's nuclear programs.
Hill flew from the Osan US air base south of Seoul after spending four days in South Korea for consultations.
His arrival in Pyongyang was reported by China's Xinhua News Agency.
The chief US nuclear negotiator will meet his counterpart Kim Kye-gwan to discuss a declaration -- expected within days -- which should include all the North's atomic programs and plutonium stockpiles plus any weaponry.
Xinhua quoted Hill as saying he was "looking forward to seeing the declaration soon."
The list should also account for a suspected separate program to build bombs using highly enriched uranium (HEU), Hill has said.
"We'll continue to have a discussion on that [HEU], with the understanding that I think we can resolve this matter by the end of the year," he said.
The content of the declaration could indicate whether the North is willing to go as far as full denuclearization, or whether it plans to keep its stockpiled material while shutting down ageing plants.
"Giving up an old facility like Yongbyon is not a huge concession," one diplomat said last week. "They may feel they can sacrifice it."
Negotiators would need to know how much plutonium the North has extracted, and "the hardest part for the North will be to say what they have done in the way of explosive devices."
Hill has said the declaration would be submitted to China, chair of the six-nation talks which began in 2003 and also include the two Koreas, the US, Russia and Japan.
Another six-party round is expected to start in Beijing on Thursday, although there has been no official announcement.
In addition to the plutonium programs, Hill has said the US needs a "complete understanding" of the HEU program even if it is no longer active.
Speaking to Seoul students on Saturday, he reportedly said that Washington has "credible evidence" of North Korea purchasing equipment and materials that could be used in a program to build HEU.
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