Berlin – The chief U.S. negotiator for six-nation talks on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program said Wednesday that he was hopeful the talks can resume by the end of this month, and he described as “useful” a meeting with his North Korean counterpart.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill and the North’s Kim Kye-Gwan met for six hours Tuesday at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin. They were to meet again Wednesday, Hill said.
“I think you can assume when you have six hours of conversations and you’re going to have some more this afternoon and tomorrow morning, you can characterize them as useful,” Hill said.
Asked when the six-party talks might resume, Hill said: “We hope we can do this by the end of January, but we have to talk to the Chinese since they are the hosts in the process.”
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed hope Wednesday that the talks could take place “soon.”
The latest round of talks among the Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia – held after a yearlong hiatus and North Korea’s first nuclear test, carried out in October – ended in December with no agreement on North Korean disarmament, or a new date for further talks.
In 2005, North Korea pledged to dismantle its weapons program in return for security guarantees and aid, but no progress has been made in implementing that accord.
Rice, who planned to meet with Hill during a two-day stopover in Berlin, said that a U.S. offer to normalize relations with North Korea remained on the table.
