US top negotiator Christopher Hill said on Monday that the
United States hopes to make some progress on the denuclearization
working group meeting in the six-party talks.
"It's important to have successful working group meetings," Hill
told reporters at the doorway of his hotel. He flew to the Chinese
capital Monday afternoon to meet with his counterpart Kim Kye-Gwan
of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
Kim, also vice foreign minister of the DPRK, arrived in Beijing
on Saturday.
Hill said he would have some bilateral consultations with
parties concerned ahead of the denuclearization working group
meeting starting Thursday in Shenyang, capital of northeast China's
Liaoning Province. He is scheduled to meet with his Chinese
counterpart Wu Dawei in Beijing on Tuesday.
According to Hill, the working group meeting will address
technical issues involved in the disablement and declaration of
DPRK's nuclear programs.
"We don't have enough time in a two-day six-party meeting... so
we really need to be sure these issues are pretty well teed up
before that," Hill said.
He hopes the declaration would come fairly early, followed by
the disablement plan.
With regard to the working group of normalization of U.S.-DPRK
relations, Hill said that is "more comprehensive" meeting that will
address issues related to the development of bilateral relations,
and he had to exchange views with the DPRK side to set down issues
to be discussed.
The Shengyang meeting comes days after the working group meeting
of economy and energy cooperation held at the truce village of
Panmunjom from August 7 to 8, and is also part of the efforts to
pave the way for a second session of the six-party talks in early
September and the ministerial meeting afterwards.
The chief delegates to the six-party talks agreed in their last
meeting in July to hold the meetings of the five working groups in
August.
The six-party talks, initiated in 2003, include China, DPRK, the
United States, Republic of Korea, Russia and Japan.
(Xinhua News Agency August 13, 2007)
