US, South Korea envoys visit China amid efforts to bring North Korea back to nuclear talks
By APTuesday, February 23, 2010
US, SKorea envoys visit China amid NKorea hopes
BEIJING — Nuclear envoys from the United States and South Korea are visiting China amid renewed diplomatic efforts to restart stalled talks on ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
South Korea’s top negotiator for the six-nation nuclear talks was to meet with his Chinese counterpart on Tuesday. On Wednesday, President Barack Obama’s special envoy on North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, was to do the same, China’s Foreign Ministry said.
“We’ll discuss how to get (North Korea) to return to the six-party talks and implement its denuclearization promises again,” South Korean envoy Wi Sung-lac told reporters after arriving in Beijing, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
The meetings come shortly after North Korea’s chief nuclear negotiator visited Beijing.
North Korea last year quit the disarmament-for-aid talks and conducted a second nuclear test, drawing tightened U.N. sanctions. The North has demanded a lifting of the sanctions and peace talks formally ending the 1950-53 Korean War before it returns to the negotiating table.
A delegation from North Korea led by Kim Yong Il, director of the International Affairs Department of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, also was in Beijing on Tuesday to meet with Chinese officials.
Wi said he didn’t have plans to meet Kim or Bosworth, Yonhap reported.
China’s Foreign Ministry said it did not know if the U.S. and North Korean officials would have any contact during their visits.
