Hill due in Singapore for talks with N. Koreans over fresh 6-way talks: State Dept.

By Hwang Doo-hyong

WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 (Yonhap) -- The chief U.S. nuclear envoy will travel to Singapore this week to meet with North Korean officials in an attempt to salvage a disarmament agreement in the waning weeks of the Bush administration, the State Department said Monday.

Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill would also visit Japan and China
ahead of a formal diplomatic conference tentatively set to be held in Beijing
Dec. 8.
"He will have discussions with each of the six-party -- the five other six-party
delegations, including North Korea," spokesman Robert Wood said in a daily news
briefing. He did not elaborate on the time and venue for the proposed meeting
with the North Koreans.
The on-and-off six-party talks on North Korean nuclear disarmament also include
South Korea and Russia.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said last week that the goal of the
upcoming talks will be signing a verification protocol on North Korea's nuclear
facilities.
Rice announced that a fresh round will be held in China on Dec. 8, a departure
from diplomatic etiquette in which China, host of the multilateral nuclear talks,
would normally announce the schedule. China has yet to formally announce the
date, and said it has proposed Dec. 8 to other dialogue partners, but fell short
of saying the North has accepted the proposal.
At issue is the U.S. claim that North Korea, in meetings with Hill last month,
agreed to allow sampling at its nuclear facilities and inspections of undeclared
nuclear sites by mutual consent. North Korea denies any such agreement, saying
inspections would be limited to declared nuclear sites, augmented by interviews
with scientists and a review of documents.
Based on the agreement on the sampling and inspections, Washington removed the
North from its list of state sponsors of terrorism last month. North Korea
responded by resuming disablement of its nuclear facilities, which it stopped in
August in protest of Washington's decision on the terrorism list.
Disabling of North Korea's nuclear facilities is the second phase of a nuclear
deal signed by the six parties, the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and
Russia. In exchange, other parties to the multilateral talks are to provide one
million tons of heavy fuel or equivalent aid to the North.
The third and last phase aims for dismantlement of all the North Korea's nuclear
facilities and programs in return for a massive economic aid and diplomatic
recognitions by Washington and Tokyo.