North Korea, U.S. delegations to meet ahead of nuke talks

Yonhap News Agency (South Korea) ^ | July 25, 2005 | Kim Kwang-tae

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BEIJING, July 25 (Yonhap) -- On the eve of the revived six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear program, the United States said Monday it planned to hold an informal meeting with the communist country to sound out its intentions.

The meeting on Monday between U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill and Vice North Korean Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan comes as six regional players involved were jockeying for positions ahead of the talks set to open on Tuesday.

"We will see the DPRK delegation this afternoon," Hill told reporters, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea.

It will be Hill's first meeting with the North Korean official since July 9. In that meeting in Beijing, North Korea agreed to rejoin the six-nation talks, ending its 13-month boycott of the dialogue table.

Earlier, Hill informally met his South Korean counterpart, Song Min-soon. Song himself met his North Korean counterpart on Sunday and scheduled similar meetings with Japan, China and Russia ahead of the six-nation talks.

"We discussed how to get productive results in the six-nation talks," Song said after a meeting with Hill at the hotel where he was staying.

Hill said he and Song exchanged opinions on the goals both sides wanted to achieve in Beijing.

South Korean sources indicated that the Song-Hill meeting covered South Korea's proposal to supply 2 million kilowatts of electricity to North Korea beginning in 2008 if the communist country agrees to scrap its nuclear program.

South Korean officials have suggested that the North get fuel oil as a reward until the promised electricity begins to flow across the border. South Korea wants all five parties including the U.S. to split the fuel oil cost.

While welcoming the South Korean energy aid offer, North Korea said through its media last week that the incentive is not enough for it to give up its nuclear ambitions.

North Korea commits itself to a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula but has made it clear that it won't abandon its nuclear arsenal unless its main adversary, the U.S., changes its hostile policy toward it.

The nuclear row was caused by a U.S. claim that North Korea admitted to having a secret uranium program, in addition to its acknowledged plutonium program. The North has denied making the confession.