SEOUL, South Korea — China’s top nuclear envoy traveled to North Korea this week to discuss the resumption of six-party talks on the North’s nuclear-weapons program, Beijing said Thursday.
North Korea walked away from the nuclear talks last year after global condemnation of its launching a long-range rocket. Prospects for restarting the talks were in doubt after an international investigation in May blamed North Korea for torpedoing a South Korean warship and killing 46 sailors. North Korea denies attacking the ship.
On Thursday, China’s Foreign Ministry said its chief nuclear envoy, Wu Dawei, visited North Korea from Monday to Wednesday to discuss resuming the nuclear talks. Wu met senior North Korean officials, including Foreign Minister Pak Ui-Chun and top nuclear envoy Kim Kye-Gwan. They discussed maintaining peace and stability on the peninsula and resuming the six-party talks, which involve the two Koreas, China, the U.S., Japan and Russia. No further details were given.
Earlier Thursday, North Korea confirmed it had seized a South Korean fishing boat and crew on Aug. 8. Seoul had been pushing for the release of the four South Korean and three Chinese fishermen it said were seized along with the boat, but Pyongyang had not responded or acknowledged that it had the fishermen.
