U.S. top negotiator Christopher Hill arrived in Beijing Wednesday evening for the fresh round of six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue to be started on Thursday.
Hill, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, had a dinner in the evening with Kim Kye Gwan, top negotiator of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), who arrived in Beijing Tuesday morning.
The U.S. envoy is also expected to meet reporters late Wednesday night.
Before his arrival in Beijing, Hill paid a visit to Japan and met with his Japanese counterpart Kenichiro Sasae to the upcoming talks.
The top Japanese and U.S. negotiators agreed to strengthen the two countries' cooperation in the upcoming plenary session of the six- party talks.
Sasae called on the U.S. side to continue its support for resolution of the issue of the DPRK's past abductions of Japanese nationals.
Hill said his country fully understands the importance of the abduction issue. He promised to help improve relations between Japan and the DPRK to create harmonious conditions for the six- party talks.
The two sides vowed to work together in the next phase of the talks to urge the DPRK to disable its nuclear facilities.
Delegations of the Republic of Korea (ROK) and Russia also arrived in Beijing Wednesday for the talks from Thursday to Sunday. The Japanese delegation is expected to arrive in Beijing on Thursday.
"The core theme of this session is to make the DPRK declare all its nuclear programs and disable its nuclear facilities," chief ROK negotiator Chun Yung-woo told reporters upon his arrival in Beijing Wednesday afternoon.
The DPRK shut down and sealed the nuclear facilities at Nongbyon in July under an aid-for-denuclearization agreement reached in February this year.
According to agreements, the DPRK is required to declare all of its nuclear programs and disable all existing nuclear facilities in exchange for a total of one million tons of heavy fuel oil or equivalent aid, with an initial shipment of 50,000 tons.
Source: Xinhua
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