Hill visits Pyongyang for showdown in nuclear talks

SEOUL, Oct. 1 (Yonhap) -- Top U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill began a trip to
North Korea on Wednesday, reportedly bringing with him a new proposal for
Pyongyang on a plan to verify its claims about nuclear programs.

Hill, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs,
crossed the heavily-fortified inter-Korean border by car for his third visit to
the North, officials here said, apparently in a bid to salvage a 2007
disarmament deal battered by a flurry of reports that the secretive nation is
moving to resume nuclear activity.
North Korea informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it was
about to reload nuclear material into a plutonium reprocessing plant at the
Yongbyon complex. It has already eliminated seals and surveillance cameras at
the plant, barring IAEA inspectors' access to it.
A South Korean government source also said signs of renewed activity were detected
at an underground nuclear test site in the secretive country's northeastern area,
where it detonated an atomic bomb in 2006.
Before heading to Pyongyang, Hill struck an unusual downbeat note over the
often-troubled nuclear talks with North Korea.
"We are in a very difficult, very tough phase of negotiations," he told reporters
after arriving in Seoul Tuesday.
Hill only outlined the purpose of his third trip to North Korea. "We are going to
try to get through the phase two, namely the need to have an agreement on what
verification will look like," he said.
A diplomatic source privy to the issue said later that Hill's primary mission is
to persuade North Korea to stop the restoration of its nuclear facilities and
agree on a plan for international inspectors to verify claims about its nuclear
programs.
"The U.S. has come up with a revised draft verification protocol," the source
said. "Hill will try to reach a compromise on it."
Hill was cautious about the prospects for his trip's outcome.
"I can't really tell you what is going to happen in Pyongyang," Hill said. "We
had some discussions through the New York channel (the North Korean mission to
the U.N.). We thought it would be useful to try to have the discussions in
Pyongyang and that's why I'm going. So let's see if we can make some progress on
this."
In Washington, the State Department confirmed that Hill went to North Korea with
"some ideas."
"He's coming with some ideas and he's going to have discussions, of course with
North Korean officials. We have to let him do his diplomacy," Robert Wood, the
department's deputy spokesman said without providing further details.
The U.S. says a deal on the verification mechanism is a precondition for taking
North Korea off the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
The Washington Post reported earlier this week that the U.S. is considering a
face-saving proposal under which North Korea would give China, the host of the
talks, a plan that includes sampling, access to key sites and other terms. The
Bush administration would then provisionally remove North Korea from the
terrorism list, after which China would announce North Korea's acceptance of the
verification plan.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, meanwhile, has said that Hill's trip came at
Pyongyang's invitation.
The North Koreans "invited Chris Hill to come, so we hope that there is some
effort to address the verification protocol, because that's what we need," she
said.
Officials here said North Korea issues a formal invitation for a foreigner if and
when their application for a trip there is approved.