SOUTH KOREA: U.S. delegate in Seoul for talks on disabling North Korea's nuclear programme ahead of talks in North Korea

A U.S. official arrived in Seoul on Monday (September 10) before heading towards a five-day trip to North Korea to discuss how to disable the North's nuclear facilities. Sung Kim, director of Office of Korean Affairs at U.S. State Department, said he expects to visit the North's three main nuclear facilities at Yongbyon. The Korean-American director at the U.S. State Department for Korean Affairs, held bilateral talks with his South Korean counterpart, Lim Sung-nam. After talks with Kim, Lim had a short news briefing, saying the two sides agreed to cooperate to solve the nuclear problems promptly and efficiently. "We both agreed that disabling nuclear facilities in Yongbyon is crucial and meaningful step to move towards denuclearization. Also we agreed to take prompt and efficient measures to disable the facilities," said Lim. Kim and other U.S. officials are expected to meet with their North Korean counterparts and discuss some "technical issues" for disabling the North's nuclear facilities at Yongbyon. "We don't expect them to bring specific agreements with North Korean counterparts. Basically, when they report the results from the talks to the next round of six-party talks, then there will be detailed outcomes in the frame of six-party talks," Lee added. The trip to North Korea is to last until Saturday (September 15), while the next round of the six-nation talks is expected to be held this month. The U.S. said the North agreed to disable its nuclear programmes by end of 2007 and the North said the U.S. will provide political and economic compensations. The day before the two-day talks began, Washington announced it would offer a significant food aid package to help Pyongyang recover from August floods that killed at least 600 people, made 170,000 homeless and destroyed many croplands. Progress in the international diplomatic drive to make the Korean peninsula nuclear-free has been slow since 2005.

ITN Source | September 11, 2007

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