S. Korea's unification minister to visit China over nuclear stalemate

SEOUL, Dec. 19 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's unification minister will leave for
China over the weekend to meet with senior Beijing officials over North Korea's
nuclear program and frozen inter-Korean relations, officials said Friday.
Kim Ha-joong, who served as Seoul's envoy to Beijing for seven years before
taking the Cabinet post this year, is expected to exchange views with several
Chinese cabinet ministers during his four-day trip starting on Sunday, they said.

"But he has no plan to meet with North Korean officials there," an official said
on condition of anonymity.
Kim plans to meet with Dai Bingguo, China's state councilor, Wang Jiarui, head of
the Chinese Communist Party's international liaison department, and Foreign
Minister Yang Jiechi, the ministry officials said. Kim will also meet Wu Dawei,
Chinese vice foreign minister and chief envoy on North Korea denuclearization
talks, who is also a close personal acquaintance, the official said.
The latest six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program ended without
progress last week amid a dispute on verification of Pyongyang's nuclear
dismantlement.
Inter-Korean relations are also frozen, with a senior North Korean military
official, Kim Yong-chol, issuing a fresh warning this week that his government
will continue sanctions on South Korean companies operating in its border town of
Kaesong should Seoul maintain its hardline policy toward Pyongyang. The North
expelled hundreds of South Koreans in the Kaesong industrial complex, curtailed
border traffic and suspended tours to its mountain resort by South Koreans as of
Dec. 1 after months of strained relations.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has adopted a tougher policy toward the
North than his liberal predecessors, demanding concrete denuclearization by
Pyongyang and more reciprocity in return for Seoul's aid.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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