Vice Foreign Minister and top negotiator Wu Dawei, US envoy Christopher Hill and Japanese chief negotiator Kenichiro Sasae are scheduled to have a tripartite meeting today for the resumption of the six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue.

 

Hill is expected to arrive in Beijing this afternoon ahead of meetings with relevant parties. This is Hill's second visit to Beijing in a week following Sasae's arrival yesterday. The chief South Korea negotiator, Chun Yung-woo, also arrived in Beijing on Monday morning.

 

The visits come as members of the six-party talks prepare for negotiations slated for next month.

 

Reports said China has also invited Kim Kye-gwan, North Korean vice foreign minister, to visit Beijing tomorrow and speculation is mounting that all four delegates will meet. Analysts say the meeting is likely to set an exact date for the resumption of talks.

 

It is said the meeting between the US and North Korea, the two major parties, was agreed on by their respective UN representatives in New York after both sides agreed they needed to discuss the date and agenda of the talks.

 

Hill expressed optimism last Tuesday that the talks would reopen by mid-December, but the Foreign Ministry was not able to confirm the comment on Thursday, saying the date is still pending.

 

China, the US and North Korea last met on October 31 in Beijing, during which the three sides reached an understanding on discussing and resolving the financial sanction issue within the framework of the six-party talks.

 

Pyongyang prompted international condemnation by conducting a nuclear test on October 9 but later agreed to return to the talks.

 

(China Daily November 27, 2006)