Asia-Pacific

US nuclear envoy visits N.Korea

(AP)
Updated: 2007-06-21 10:38

SEOUL, South Korea - Chief US nuclear envoy Christopher Hill arrives in Pyongyang in the first high-level visit by a US official there in more than 4 1/2 years.

US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill (L) shakes hands with North Korea's US Affairs Department Director Li Gun upon his arrival at Pyongyang airport June 21, 2007. [Xinhua]

Assistant US Secretary of State Christopher Hill's trip came ahead of the expected resumption of six-nation talks next month following the resolution of a key financial dispute that had blocked progress.

APTN footage showed Hill arriving at Pyongyang's airport in a small jet in a steady downpour. His five-member delegation was met by Ri Gun, the North's deputy nuclear negotiator.

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"We want to get the six-party process moving," Hill, standing under an umbrella, said in the APTN film. "We hope that we can make up for some of the time that we lost this spring and so I'm looking forward to good discussions about that."

Hill and Ri were shown walking together and chatting in a friendly manner.

"We're all waiting for you," Ri said. In response, Hill said he "got the message on Monday and we had to work fast to find an airplane," suggesting the visit was hastily arranged and based on a North Korean invitation.

North Korea, which carried out its first nuclear test explosion in October, promised in a landmark agreement struck in February with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the US that it would shut down its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon by mid-April.

Progress was stalled by the financial dispute between Pyongyang and Washington involving $25 million in alleged North Korean illicit funds. That dispute was resolved in recent days, and although North Korea still hasn't shut the reactor, it invited UN monitors next week to discuss a shutdown.

Last year, North Korea openly invited Hill to visit the country, but Washington did not accept the offer.

Hill planned consultations Thursday and Friday on the nuclear issue "to move the process forward," the US State Department said in a statement.

Visits to the North by high-ranking US officials are extremely rare. The US and North Korea do not have formal diplomatic relations. Hill's unexpected trip was the first since one by his predecessor as assistant secretary in October 2002.

The highest-ranking US official ever to visit North Korea was former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who met the North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il in late 2000.

Hill was to meet with North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan to discuss advancing the six-party process, the State Department said. Hill was to return to South Korea on Friday and then travel on to Japan on Saturday.

South Korea welcomed Hill's visit as "efforts to build mutual trust" between the US and the North, and expressed hope that it would prompt concrete steps toward North Korea's denuclearization.