Seoul - Christopher Hill, the chief US negotiator in the
North Korean nuclear talks, arrived in the communist state Wednesday
in an attempt save an agreement on the disablement of North Korea's
nuclear weapons programme.
The US embassy in Seoul said Hill crossed the border between South
and North Korea Wednesday mid-morning. He is attempting to overcome
the current stalemate in bilateral talks.
After arriving in South Korea on Tuesday, Hill was quoted as
saying by the Yonhap news agency that he was travelling to Pyongyang
to make the verification of the North's nuclear declaration possible.
'We need to make sure that we are going to be able to verify their
declaration, so let's see if we can come up with the measures or they
allow us to verify the declaration,' Hill said.
Talks were in a very difficult phase, he added.
Hill's trip is designed to save a three-stage agreement that is to
see the dismantlement of North Korea's nuclear programmes.
Work on the second stage of the agreement, which includes
submission by North Korea of a declaration of its nuclear programme
and the disablement of its main nuclear facility, has been reversed
because North Korea charges the United States with failing to live up
to its promise to take the Stalinist state off the US list of state
sponsors of terrorism.
Last week, North Korea announced it planned to restart work at its
reprocessing facility at Yongbyon this week by testing it using
nuclear material.
The United States said it would take the promised step to remove
the country from its terrorism blacklist as soon as Pyongyang agreed
to verification procedures of its nuclear disarmament, but no
compromise has been reached on the issue.
USA
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