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SEOUL: Nuclear power North Korea may give out a declaration of its
atomic activities during US nuclear envoy Christopher Hill’s trip
to Beijing this week or shortly afterwards, a report said Monday.
But it is not clear whether Hill’s Pyongyang
counterpart, Kim Kye Gwan, will show up in the Chinese capital to
meet him, a South Korean government source told Yonhap news agency.
Hill will be in Beijing from May 27 to 29 and
Moscow from May 29 to 31.
US State Department Deputy Spokesman Tom Casey
has said Hill was open to meeting Kim Kye Gwan during his trip to
China and Russia.
South Korean nuclear envoy Kim Sook may also
visit Beijing for talks with his North Korean counterpart, Yonhap
reported.
Kim Sook is to visit Russia but the schedule for
his return has not yet been set, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Moon Tae
Young told reporters.
The North agreed last year in landmark talks to
disable nuclear plants at Yongbyon under a deal reached with the
United States, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea.
Kim Sook said last week that North Korea plans
to blow up the cooling tower at Yongbyon to symbolize its commitment
to disarmament soon after it hands over the declaration.
But disputes over its declaration of nuclear
activities due last December 31 have delayed the permanent
dismantling of the plants and the handover of all nuclear material.
Hopes are growing that the impasse will soon end
since the North this month gave the United States 18,000 pages of
operating and production records for its Yongbyon reactor and
reprocessing plant.
These produced weapons-grade plutonium,
including the material that the North used to stage a nuclear test
in October 2006.
In return for total denuclearization, the North
would receive energy aid, a lifting of US sanctions, the
establishment of diplomatic relations with Washington and a formal
peace treaty with the United States.
Washington is expected to start the process of
removing the North from its list of terrorism-sponsoring states
following the destruction of the cooling tower.
-- AFP
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