TOKYO - The chief U.S. nuclear envoy to North Korea was traveling to the communist country Thursday ahead of the expected resumption of talks on halting Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program, the State Department said.
The State Department said in a statement Wednesday night that nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill would visit Pyongyang on Thursday and Friday as part of a round of consultations with "the six-party counterparts to move the process forward."
Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki also told reporters in Tokyo that Hill would be visiting North Korea on Thursday, declining to elaborate.
Earlier Thursday, Hill told reporters that the United States hopes the next round of North Korea nuclear negotiations will take up matters other than inspections of the North's Yongbyon reactor and a banking dispute that held up the talks for more than a year.
About $25 million in North Korean funds had been frozen in a Macau bank blacklisted by the United States over allegations of money-laundering and other financial crimes. North Korea had refused to dismantle its nuclear facilities until the money was freed, and the U.S. only recently approved the release to help end the standoff.
"We don't want to have ... a six-party meeting when we're again discussing the shutdown of the Yongbyon facility. When we meet ... we'd like to be discussing something besides BDA and something besides the shutdown," said Hill, who is wrapping up a trip through the region.
