The top US envoy to multilateral talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons drive said he would hold direct consultations with Pyongyang ahead of the next round of the six-party meeting.

Christopher Hill, the East Asian chief at the State Department, did not dismiss reports he would make a rare trip to North Korea to follow up on Pyongyang's pledge to disband its atomic weapons network.

"I look forward to meeting all the parties and I look forward at some point to meeting the North Koreans before we get going again in November," Hill told reporters in Washington.

South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-Young said in a report to parliament last week that Hill was keen to make the trip to North Korea, with which the United States has no diplomatic relations.

Asked to comment on the trip, Hill said, "I don't have any plans yet and I am obviously going to be very focused in the coming weeks of consulting with other partners and that could well include North Korea but I haven't made any travel plans yet."

North Korea agreed to give up its nuclear arms in return for security guarantees, energy aid and other incentives at the last round of six-party talks in Beijing earlier this month.

The fifth round of talks that comprise the United States, the two Koreas, Russia, China and Japan has been scheduled for early November.

North Korea insists that any dismantlement of its nuclear arms program would begin only after it receives light-water reactors from the United States to allow it to generate power under a civilian atomic program.

The United States maintains that any discussions on a peaceful nuclear program for North Korea could take place only after Pyongyang disbanded its nuclear weapons arsenal.

Hill did not say what he wished to discuss with the North Koreans but stressed that all six parties "have to have some serious discussions about the nature of the verification regime and dismantlement efforts" for North Korea to make good its promise to disarm.

"Usually the first step in these things involves a declaration on their part as to what exactly they have gotten," he said.

Hill said the United States expected North Korea to be transparent about its nuclear arms program rather than have inspectors going on a tedious hunt in the country.

"We are not interested in a Easter-egg hunt across the DPRK (North Korea) landscape. We are interested in cooperating with the DPRK authorities on their decision to get rid of their nuclear program.

"In that sense, we are prepared to do this on a cooperative basis," he added.

Hill said that there would be "a very intensive period of consultations" ahead of the fifth round of the talks, adding that a South Korean team was scheduled to arrive in Washington as part of that effort.

On doubts about North Korea living up to its word, he said Pyongyang made the pledge not only to the United States but to all its neighbors.

"I think the Chinese in particular are very concerned about making this deal stick as are the rest of us," he said.

The nuclear standoff flared up in October 2002 when the United States accused North Korea of breaking a 1994 nuclear safeguards agreement by running a secret uranium-enrichment program.

North Korea denied the claims, but responded by throwing out international inspectors and withdrawing from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

In February this year North Korea admitted having built nuclear weapons.

(Chinadaily.com via agencies September 27, 2005)