The top US nuclear negotiator for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has visited its reactor, becoming the highest-level American official to go there, an official said yesterday.
Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill made the visit to the Yongbyon nuclear complex, north of Pyongyang, on Monday afternoon, said Max Kwak, a spokesman for the US Embassy in Seoul.
He gave no more details, including Hill's reaction to the ongoing work to disable the plutonium-producing reactor being conducted under a six-nation agreement.
Yesterday, Hill met with DPRK Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun, the official Korean Central News Agency said in a one-sentence dispatch.
The US envoy also toured Pyongyang and rode a subway together with other members of his delegation, including Sung Kim, the State Department's top Korea expert, according to footage from broadcaster APTN.
Hill's visit to Yongbyon made him the highest-level US official to visit the complex, according to the US Embassy in Seoul. The compound is at the heart of Pyongyang's pursuit of nuclear weapons that culminated in its first-ever nuclear test explosion in October last year.
The DPRK began disabling the reactor, which was shut down in July, and two other facilities last month under the watch of US experts. The disablement, which will make the reactor difficult to restart, is the biggest step the Pyongyang has taken to scale back its nuclear programs.
Under the six-nation agreement, the DPRK is to receive energy aid and diplomatic concessions in return.
Pyongyang had promised to complete the disabling by the end of the year, but the Republic of Korea's (ROK) nuclear envoy Chun Yung-woo said last week it would take longer to remove about 8,000 spent fuel rods from the reactor.
Pyongyang is also required to declare all its nuclear programs by year's end, and the issue was expected to top Hill's talks with his DPRK counterpart.
Following Hill's trip to the DPRK, six-nation negotiations are expected to resume in Beijing. But ROK Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Hee-yong said host China has not finalized the dates for the talks and it would be difficult to hold the negotiations this week.
Officials had said they expected the talks from December 6-8.
Deputy PMs meet
The deputy prime ministers of the DPRK and the ROK discussed yesterday how to boost economic cooperation between their countries amid a flurry of exchanges fostered by last month's summit.
DPRK Deputy Premier Jon Sung Hun arrived in Seoul on a chartered flight yesterday morning for three days of talks with his ROK counterpart, Kwon O-kyu, who doubles as the nation's finance and economy minister.
They are to work out details of wide-ranging accords signed by ROK President Roh Moo-hyun and DPRK leader Kim Jong-il during their landmark summit in Pyongyang in early October. The accords call for greater peace and economic cooperation between the two sides.
Source: China Daily/Agencies
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