Sung Kim due in S. Korea on resumption of 6-way talks: State Dept.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 21 (Yonhap) -- The U.S. special envoy on North Korea's nuclear disarmament, Sung Kim, will fly to South Korea early next week to discuss convening another round of the six-party nuclear talks on a verification regime for the North's nuclear facilities, the State Department said Friday
.
"He will be in South Korea to take part in the United Nations-Republic of Korea
Joint Conference on Disarmament and Non-proliferation Issues," which runs through
Wednesday for three days on the southern resort island of Jeju, State Department
spokesman Sean McCormack said in a daily news briefing. "He will meet with South
Korean officials on the margins of that conference."
McCormack said Kim will "talk about the six-party talks, they'll talk about
verification issues, and the hoped-for next Head of Delegation Meeting, which is
yet to be announced."
Kim will then travel to Tokyo Thursday for consultations with Japanese officials
on the resumption of the North Korean nuclear talks that were last held in July,
he said.
The spokesman, however, dismissed speculation that Kim will meet with North
Korean officials in Jeju or fly to Pyongyang during his Asian tour next week,
saying, "There will not be any North Korean officials there, to our knowledge ...
and he has no plans to meet with North Korean officials or to travel to North
Korea -- not on this trip."
In Jeju, Kim will likely meet with Hwang Joon-kook, head of the South Korean
Foreign Ministry's bureau dealing with the North Korean nuclear issue. That will
be about two weeks after the two last met, in New York on the sidelines of a
seminar.
At the seminar hosted by the National Committee on American Foreign Policy
(NCAFP), Kim had a three-way meeting with his North Korean counterpart, Ri Gun,
director general of the North American Affairs Bureau of North Korea's Foreign
Ministry, and Frank Jannuzi, a key foreign policy adviser to President-elect
Barack Obama.
After the rare meeting, Ri told reporters, "We are ready to respond to any U.S.
administration whatever its North Korea policy may be. We've handled many U.S.
administrations, some seeking dialogue with us and others trying to isolate and
oppress us."
Participants in the NCAFP seminar said Ri and other North Korean attendees
expressed interest in "continuity" of dialogue between the North and U.S. after
Obama's inauguration.
Christopher Hill, the chief U.S. nuclear envoy, also met with Ri at that time,
and said they had "substantive, serious" talks on "verification protocol, energy
assistance and disablement of the North's nuclear facilities."
Hill said China, host of the six-party talks, will soon announce the date for a
fresh round.
U.S. officials expect the six-party talks will likely be held in mid-December,
but analysts are dubious, citing the North's recent rejection of the U.S. claim
that Pyongyang agreed to allow access to its nuclear facilities and sampling of
nuclear materials for scientific and forensic verification of its declared
nuclear facilities.
The rejection should be seen as intent by the North to shun any further
negotiations with the outgoing Bush administration, some analysts say.
Hardliners denounce Bush for accepting the incomplete agreement, which allows
access to the North's undeclared nuclear sites by international inspectors only
on "mutual consent."
Obama has evaluated Bush's engagement with the North for the past couple of
years, saying that it proves engagement produces results.
Dennis Wilder, senior director for Asian affairs at the National Security
Council, meanwhile, told reporters that he expects China will announce the date
for the next round of the six-party talks early next week. He spoke aboard Air
Force One en route to Lima, Peru, where he is accompanying U.S. President George
W. Bush to the annual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.
"So we are very much hoping that by the time we leave APEC, we will have that
meeting -- the timing of that meeting in place," Wilder said. The forum ends
Monday.
"And then hopefully that meeting can really get us to the end of what we call the
second phase of the six-party process, and begin to start thinking about the
third phase," he said.
Under the second phase of the multilateral nuclear deal signed by the two Koreas,
the U.S., China, Japan and Russia, the North is supposed to disable its nuclear
facilities in return for one million tons of heavy fuel oil.
The third and final phase calls for the North's dismantlement of its nuclear
facilities and programs in exchange for a massive economic aid and diplomatic
recognition.