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

By Hwang Doo-hyong
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.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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