Nuclear envoys of two Koreas to meet in Beijing next week

(ATTN: ADDS fresh quotes, details in paras 9-14; RECASTS lead para) SEOUL, Sept. 16 (Yonhap) -- The chief nuclear envoys of South and North Korea will meet again in Beijing next week, a Seoul diplomat said Friday, in what appears to be a fresh sign that efforts to reopen long-stalled six-party denuclearization talks are making progress. Wi Sung-lac of South Korea and Ri Yong-ho of North Korea will meet in the Chinese capital "in the middle of next week," said the diplomat who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The nuclear envoys met in Indonesia in late July for the first time in more than two years, setting the tone for renewed diplomatic efforts to reopen the stalled six-party talks, which also involve the U.S., China, Japan and Russia. "Both sides agreed to hold the second round of talks between chief nuclear negotiators from South and North Korea in Beijing in the middle of next week," the diplomat said. "We are arranging a specific date for the talks, possibly on Tuesday or Wednesday." Since the July talks between Wi and Ri, Seoul and Washington have engaged in preliminary discussions with Pyongyang to gauge the possibility of restarting the six-party talks. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, during a rare summit on Aug. 24 with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, reportedly pledged to consider issuing a moratorium on nuclear testing and missile launches if the six-party talks resume. South Korea and the U.S., however, have reacted coldly to the North's latest gesture, urging Pyongyang to announce such a moratorium and address concerns about its uranium enrichment program before the multilateral negotiations begin. Also, Seoul and Washington insist that Pyongyang must allow U.N. inspectors to verify the suspension of its all nuclear activities ahead of the resumption of the six-party talks. The diplomat said, however, that North Korea has yet to clarify its stance on the "pre-steps." "I can't comment on the agenda for the second round of talks, but the North's side has made no mention of its stance on the issues when it agreed to hold the talks next week," he said. Asked about the possibility of another meeting between the U.S. and North Korea following next week's inter-Korean talks, the diplomat replied, "To my knowledge, no decision has been made on the U.S.-North Korea meeting." The North's uranium program is among the key hurdles to the resumption of the six-party dialogue, which has been stalled since late 2008 as Pyongyang abruptly quit the negotiating table. Since then, the North had escalated tensions on the Korean Peninsula by conducting a nuclear test, test-launching a long-range missile and staging military attacks on South Korea. In November last year, North Korea revealed the existence of a uranium enrichment facility, adding urgency to new international efforts to check Pyongyang's nuclear weapons development. The North claims the uranium enrichment program is for peaceful energy development, but outside experts believe that it will give the country a new source of fission material to make atomic bombs, in addition to its widely known plutonium-based weapons program.