U.N. envoy in North Korea to spur nuke talks

In Beijing, top nuclear negotiators from North Korea and China were to meet again Wednesday, a day after discussing how to restart the six-nation nuclear talks aimed at ridding Pyongyang of its atomic weapons program in return for aid, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

The meeting in China was believed to have focused on the North's calls for U.N. sanctions to be lifted and a peace treaty signed with Washington formally ending the Korean War before it returns to the disarmament talks, Yonhap reported, citing unidentified diplomatic sources in Beijing.

The flurry of diplomacy heightened speculation that there could be a breakthrough to jump-start the stalled talks, which include the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan.

"This is a sign that the resumption of the six-party talks is imminent," said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul. The North's top negotiator "is expected to tell Chinese officials about North Korea's disarmament plan in a more concrete manner" — probably in return for aid from Beijing, he said.

U.N. political chief B. Lynn Pascoe was greeted Tuesday by North Korean officials at an airport on the outskirts of Pyongyang, according to footage broadcast by APTN in the North's capital.

Pascoe said the aim of his visit was to find "ways we can cooperate better," according to the footage. "So it should be quite useful we hope."

Pascoe's trip was the first to North Korea by a high-level U.N. official since 2004, according to Seoul's Foreign Ministry. The envoy is reportedly bearing a letter from U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The four-day visit came a day after North Korean leader Kim Jong Il assured visiting top Chinese Communist Party official Wang Jiarui that Pyongyang is committed to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. The next day, Kim sent his chief nuclear envoy to Beijing for talks.

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