U.S., N. Korean nuclear envoys set to meet in New York next week: State Dept.

(ATTN: UPDATES with more details, background throughout)
By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Oct. 31 (Yonhap) -- The U.S. special envoy for multilateral North Korean nuclear talks will meet with his North Korean counterpart in New York next week on the margins of a seminar, the State Department said Friday.

The meeting between Sung Kim, U.S. special envoy for the six-party talks, and Ri
Gun, director general of the American affairs bureau of the North's Foreign
Ministry, comes as the parties negotiate toward resumption of the talks, possibly
next month.
"A North Korean delegation, headed by Ambassador Ri Gun, director general for
North American affairs at the DPRK Foreign Ministry, will be visiting New York
later next week for an event organized by the National Committee on American
Foreign Policy, a non-governmental organization," the department said in a
statement. "Ambassador Sung Kim, special envoy for the six-party talks, will meet
with the group on the margins of their NGO events."
DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official
name.
Ri's visit follows the U.S. presidential election Tuesday.
Ri, former deputy chief of the North Korean mission to the United Nations in New
York, doubles as deputy head of the North Korean delegation to the six-party
talks on ending North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
"This is one of those so-called track two efforts, where there's an NGO or
private organization, nongovernmental organization that's sponsoring a
conference," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
Sung Kim accompanied Christopher Hill, the chief U.S. nuclear envoy, to Pyongyang
for Hill's meeting with Kim Gye-gwan, head of delegation to the six-party talks,
in early October when the North Koreans were reluctant to allow unfettered access
to their nuclear facilities.
Soon after the visit, Pyongyang agreed to allow international monitors to inspect
facilities for verification of the nuclear list the North presented in June. That
was a major breakthrough for the talks, stalled for months over the verification
issue.
Washington then announced the removal of North Korea from the U.S. terrorism
blacklist. That brought criticism that the Bush administration accepted an
incomplete verification measure, which allows access to undeclared nuclear sites
only on "mutual consent," to make the North Korean nuclear issue a major foreign
policy achievement in its waning months.
U.S. officials said they expected the six-party talks to resume in mid-November.
The talks were originally expected to be held in late October or early November,
but ran into scheduling problems.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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