Foreign minister to visit Beijing for Foreign minister to visit Beijing for talks on N. Koreatalks on N. Korea

By Lee Chi-dong

SEOUL, Feb. 24 (Yonhap) -- South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan was to leave for Beijing on Tuesday for talks with senior Chinese officials on the latest North Korean missile threat and ways to promote the Seoul-Beijing "strategic cooperative partnership," Yu's aides said.

Yu, accompanied by Seoul's top nuclear negotiator Kim Sook in the two-day trip,
will also discuss how to break a deadlock in the six-way talks on Pyongyang's
nuclear ambitions. China hosts the disarmament talks whose other members are the
United States, Russia, and Japan.
The minister's visit comes after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton toured
South Korea, China, Japan, and Indonesia last week.
"In talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi later today, the ministers
will share the results of their respective talks with Secretary Clinton," a South
Korean foreign ministry official said.
Yu plans to pay a courtesy call on Premier Wen Jiabao Tuesday afternoon and meet
Wang Jiarui, head of the Chinese Communist Party's International Department, on
Wednesday.
Wang had visited Pyongyang late last month and was the first foreign guest to
meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il who is believed to have suffered a
stroke last summer. Speculations still abound about Kim's recovery and power
succession.
Intelligence suggests North Korea has resumed its ballistic missile activity, and
analysts who scrutinized satellite photos say it seems to have almost completed
preparations for a long-range missile launch from a base on its east coast.