The chief US nuclear negotiator, Christopher Hill, said Wednesday he will fly to Singapore next week for informal six-party talks on setting protocols for the disabling of North Korea's nuclear facilities. The informal meeting follows up on the agreement made in Beijing last week to complete the disabling of the North's nuclear facilities and provide energy aid to that nation by the end of October, as a step towards eventual dismantlement of Pyongyang's nuclear programmes under an aid-for-denuclearization deal. "There will be some kind of six-party event in Singapore," Hill told reporters after spending hours in a closed-door Senate hearing. "We look forward to the verification discussion, but we haven't worked out on when and how." Hill was referring to next week's annual ASEAN Regional Forum in Singapore, where US Secretary Condoleezza Rice, North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-jun and top diplomats of four other nations in the six-party talks will discuss regional security issues. The other parties are South Korea, China, Japan and Russia. Hill would not preclude the possibility of the foreign ministers of the six countries getting together on the margins of the ARF session, saying "I don't know. We are waiting for what the Chinese are saying." Hill would not discuss the classified hearing, just saying he expected to meet his counterparts in Singapore on the sidelines of the ARF to produce verification protocols "very soon" for the North's nuclear disablement. Christopher R. Hill, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs and former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cameroon.
Hill Says 'Some Kind of Six-Party Event' Expected
US Nuclear Envoy Says 'Some Kind of Six-Party Event' Expected
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Text of report in English by South Korean news agency Yonhap
[Yonhap headline: "Hill To Fly to Singapore for Informal Six- Party Nuclear Talks"]
WASHINGTON, July 16 (Yonhap) - The chief US nuclear negotiator, Christopher Hill, said Wednesday he will fly to Singapore next week for informal six-party talks on setting protocols for the disabling of North Korea's nuclear facilities.
The informal meeting follows up on the agreement made in Beijing last week to complete the disabling of the North's nuclear facilities and provide energy aid to that nation by the end of October, as a step towards eventual dismantlement of Pyongyang's nuclear programmes under an aid-for-denuclearization deal.
"There will be some kind of six-party event in Singapore," Hill told reporters after spending hours in a closed-door Senate hearing. "We look forward to the verification discussion, but we haven't worked out on when and how."
Hill was referring to next week's annual ASEAN Regional Forum in Singapore, where US Secretary Condoleezza Rice, North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-jun and top diplomats of four other nations in the six-party talks will discuss regional security issues. The other parties are South Korea, China, Japan and Russia.
Hill would not preclude the possibility of the foreign ministers of the six countries getting together on the margins of the ARF session, saying "I don't know. We are waiting for what the Chinese are saying."
Hill would not discuss the classified hearing, just saying he expected to meet his counterparts in Singapore on the sidelines of the ARF to produce verification protocols "very soon" for the North's nuclear disablement.
The hearing was held amid criticism that the Bush administration, in its waning months, compromised by accepting North Korea's programme list that did not include nuclear warheads, its alleged uranium-based programme and its purported nuclear proliferation to Syria.
The Bush administration notified Congress last month of its intention to remove North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism within 45 days.
Unless Congress takes action, the delisting will take effect Aug. 11.
Critics say North Korea might not intend to abandon its nuclear ambitions, although its declaration includes its plutonium- producing nuclear reactor, which is said to be old enough for scrapping in one way or another.
Reports said Rice may have a one-on-one meeting with North Korea's Pak on the margins of the ARF, although her spokesman, Sean McCormack, said earlier this week, "There's nothing on the schedule at this point."
Since joining the ARF in 2000, North Korea has been sending its top diplomat to the security forum.
In 2002, then-US Secretary of State Colin Powell talked to his North Korean counterpart, Paik Nam-sun, on the sidelines of the ARF in Brunei in a casual 15-minute "pull aside" meeting to discuss the policy of the Bush administration, which months earlier had labelled Pyongyang as part of an axis of evil, along with Iraq and Iran.
In 2004, on the sidelines of another forum in Jakarta, Powell and Paik held a formal meeting on facilitating the six-party talks, which had begun a year earlier.
Originally published by Yonhap news agency, Seoul, in English 2211 16 Jul 08.
(c) 2008 BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.tracking
Story Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific
