BEIJING (AFP) — North Korea's top nuclear negotiator arrived in Beijing Tuesday to hold talks with his US counterpart, a media report said, amid efforts to reignite the long-running disarmament process.
Kim Kye-Gwan arrived at Beijing airport, but declined to answer questions from reporters, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.
US envoy Christopher Hill arrived in Beijing on Monday as part of a regional trip of nations involved in the North Korea negotiations, aimed at laying the groundwork for an Asia trip by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice next week.
Hill said late Monday that he did not rule out meeting North Korean representatives during his stay in the Chinese capital.
"We always let them know that I'm here. We don't have anything set up yet. But, you know, it is possible," Hill said.
As he left his hotel on Tuesday morning, Hill said only that he would be in Beijing for most of the day and intended to brief reporters before he left.
Hill is scheduled to fly to South Korea later Tuesday and then to Japan.
Rice will leave Washington on February 23 for South Korea, China and Japan, her spokesman said last week for what a US State Department spokesman said was a trip aimed at breathing new life into the deadlocked disarmament talks.
The North was supposed to disable its main atomic plants by December 31 and list all its programmes under a six-nation deal negotiated by the two Koreas, China, the United States, Russia and Japan.
North Korea has said it submitted a list in November, but the United States insists it is still waiting for a complete declaration including a full account of a suspected covert uranium enrichment programme.
North Korea, which staged a nuclear test in October 2006, has accused Washington of bad faith and warned it could slow down cooperation.
North Korea Tuesday urged Japan to pull out of six-party nuclear negotiations, saying it is trying to turn the forum into a "platform for confrontation."
Minju Joson, newspaper of the communist state's cabinet, said Japan appeared to be working hard to torpedo the talks on scrapping the North's nuclear programmes in exchange for energy aid and diplomatic and security benefits.
"Japan is taking much pains to turn the six-party talks into a platform for confrontation," the paper said, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
"It is its ulterior motive to escalate its policy of pressure upon the DPRK (North Korea) under the pretext of the 'abduction issue' and scuttle the above-said talks in case everything goes against its will."
Tokyo's behaviour in finding fault with the talks "only reminds one of the scandalous action of the mentally deranged fellow," the paper said.
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