ID :
23024
Tue, 10/07/2008 - 09:42
Auther :
Shortlink :
http://m.oananews.org//node/23024
The shortlink copeid
Sung Kim set to return home without revisiting Pyongyang: State Dept.
By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 (Yonhap) -- A senior U.S. official in charge of North Korean nuclear affairs will return to Washington Wednesday without going back to Pyongyang, the State Department said Monday.
"Sung Kim is in Seoul right now. He's planning to have some further consultations
with South Koreans and the Japanese," deputy spokesman Robert Wood said at a
daily press briefing. "His plan right now is to return to Washington on
Wednesday."
The spokesman said Kim had no immediate plans to visit Pyongyang again.
Kim, special envoy to the six-party nuclear talks, accompanied Assistant
Secretary of State Christopher Hill to the North Korean capital last week.
Hill came back to Washington over the past weekend, but Kim remained in Seoul,
spawning speculation that he might return to Pyongyang for further consultations
on a verification protocol on North Korea's nuclear facilities.
While in Pyongyang for three days last week, Hill met with North Korea's chief
nuclear envoy, Kim Kye-gwan, North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun and Lt.
Gen. Li Chan-bok, the chief military representative assigned to the inter-Korean
border village of Panmunjom.
Reports said Hill presented face-saving measures for North Korea to break the
deadlock over the verification regime.
Wood dismissed reports that Hill made significant concessions on the verification
regime.
"Well, let's -- first, before we get ahead of ourselves, let's get that
verification regime, which we are still waiting for from the North Koreans. That
hasn't changed," he said.
The spokesman would not elaborate on what Hill discussed with the North Koreans,
saying only that Hill would brief Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice first.
"I'm not able to characterize the substance of the trip," he said. "Hopefully,
we'll be able to do that after Chris has had a chance to talk to the secretary."
North Korea recently began restarting its nuclear facilities that were disabled
under an aid-for-denuclearization deal, denouncing the U.S. for failing to lift
it from a U.S. terrorism blacklist.
Washington, for its part, says it would not delist the North unless it agrees to
a complete verification regime in which international monitors are allowed
unfettered access to suspected North Korean nuclear facilities.
hdh@yna.co.kr
(END)
WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 (Yonhap) -- A senior U.S. official in charge of North Korean nuclear affairs will return to Washington Wednesday without going back to Pyongyang, the State Department said Monday.
"Sung Kim is in Seoul right now. He's planning to have some further consultations
with South Koreans and the Japanese," deputy spokesman Robert Wood said at a
daily press briefing. "His plan right now is to return to Washington on
Wednesday."
The spokesman said Kim had no immediate plans to visit Pyongyang again.
Kim, special envoy to the six-party nuclear talks, accompanied Assistant
Secretary of State Christopher Hill to the North Korean capital last week.
Hill came back to Washington over the past weekend, but Kim remained in Seoul,
spawning speculation that he might return to Pyongyang for further consultations
on a verification protocol on North Korea's nuclear facilities.
While in Pyongyang for three days last week, Hill met with North Korea's chief
nuclear envoy, Kim Kye-gwan, North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun and Lt.
Gen. Li Chan-bok, the chief military representative assigned to the inter-Korean
border village of Panmunjom.
Reports said Hill presented face-saving measures for North Korea to break the
deadlock over the verification regime.
Wood dismissed reports that Hill made significant concessions on the verification
regime.
"Well, let's -- first, before we get ahead of ourselves, let's get that
verification regime, which we are still waiting for from the North Koreans. That
hasn't changed," he said.
The spokesman would not elaborate on what Hill discussed with the North Koreans,
saying only that Hill would brief Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice first.
"I'm not able to characterize the substance of the trip," he said. "Hopefully,
we'll be able to do that after Chris has had a chance to talk to the secretary."
North Korea recently began restarting its nuclear facilities that were disabled
under an aid-for-denuclearization deal, denouncing the U.S. for failing to lift
it from a U.S. terrorism blacklist.
Washington, for its part, says it would not delist the North unless it agrees to
a complete verification regime in which international monitors are allowed
unfettered access to suspected North Korean nuclear facilities.
hdh@yna.co.kr
(END)
