US nuclear envoy wraps up talks with North Korea

[October 03, 2008]  SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- The chief U.S. envoy at six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear disarmament met with his South Korean counterpart Friday after spending three days in the North trying to persuade it to resume dismantling its nuclear program.

Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill told reporters after meeting with South Korean nuclear envoy Kim Sook that his talks in North Korea had been "substantive and lengthy." He said he could not say more until he had reported to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the other nations in the six-party talks.

The talks involve the United States, the two Koreas, Japan, China and Russia. Japan's nuclear envoy, Akitaka Saiki, was scheduled to fly to Seoul on Friday.

Hill arrived in Seoul earlier Friday from North Korea, where he held talks with his North Korean counterpart, Kim Kye Gwan, at the reclusive nation's invitation.

North Korea earlier began disabling its nuclear facilities in Yongbyon under an aid-for-disarmament pact negotiated by the six nations but abruptly stopped in mid-August, citing Washington's refusal to remove it from a terrorism blacklist.

The U.S. maintains the pact requires North Korea to submit to a thorough verification of its nuclear accounting -- a demand rejected by the North.

North Korea's defiance comes amid concern about authoritarian leader Kim Jong Il's health. Kim, 66, has not been seen in public since he reportedly suffered a stroke in August.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Thursday that Hill did not present North Korea with any proposals for substantive changes to the verification proposal but rather gave suggestions on how the "choreography" or timing of the process could be adjusted, perhaps by involving North Korea's main ally, China.

"There have been various plans in the past where instruments, declarations, et cetera, have been deposited with Beijing and then shared subsequently with the other five parties, while other commitments from the five parties move forward," McCormack said.

It was unclear Friday how North Korea reacted to the face-saving measure designed to salvage the disarmament pact.

"The ball is really in the North Koreans' court," McCormack reiterated.

The two Koreas, meanwhile, held their first official talks in eight months on Thursday inside the Demilitarized Zone separating the two countries.

The military talks were brief, with North Korea demanding that South Korea stop sending propaganda leaflets critical of its leader over the border. It threatened to expel South Koreans working at joint projects in North Korea if the propaganda does not halt, the North's official KCNA news agency reported.

The two Koreas agreed in 2004 to officially end decades of fierce propaganda battles using leaflets, loudspeakers and radio broadcasts. However, activists still send large balloons into the North carrying anti-Kim Jong Il leaflets -- and sometimes $1 bills.

[Associated Press; By JAE-SOON CHANG]

Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

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