Top U.S. Envoy Visits North Korea

A high-ranking U.S. envoy made a rare trip to North Korea on Thursday in a surprise bid to accelerate international efforts to press the communist government to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

The visit by Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Christopher Hill came ahead of the expected resumption next month of six-nation talks on halting North Korea's nuclear programs following the resolution of a key financial dispute that had blocked progress.

APTN video footage showed Hill arriving at Pyongyang's airport from South Korea in a small jet amid a steady downpour. His five-member delegation was met by Ri Gun, North Korea's deputy nuclear negotiator.

"We want to get the six-party process moving," Hill said in the APTN video. "We hope that we can make up for some of the time that we lost this spring and so I'm looking forward to good discussions about that."

Hill, who also said the visit was part of regional consultations, and Ri walked together and chatted in English in a friendly manner.

"We're all waiting for you," Ri said. Hill replied that he "got the message on Monday and we had to work fast to find an airplane," suggesting the visit was hastily arranged and based on a North Korean invitation.

North Korea, which carried out its first nuclear test explosion in October, promised China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the U.S. in February that it would shut down its bomb-making nuclear reactor at Yongbyon by mid-April.

Progress was stalled by a financial dispute between Pyongyang and Washington involving alleged North Korean illicit funds. It was recently resolved, and although North Korea still hasn't shut the reactor, it invited U.N. monitors to visit next week to discuss a shutdown.

Sending a top U.S. envoy to North Korea even before it shuts down its reactor displays the Bush administration's eagerness to win progress on the nuclear standoff, seeking a foreign policy triumph amid the deteriorating situation in Iraq.

Last year, North Korea openly invited Hill to visit the country, but Washington did not accept the offer.

"I think the U.S. is trying to keep North Korea from dragging its feet any longer" now that the banking row is resolved, said Nam Sung-wook, a North Korea expert at Korea University. "Unless something is done right now, North Korea could stall for time on another pretext."

Nam said North Korea appears to want to reaffirm concessions it would get from Washington before it closes down and seals the reactor, including the removal of North Korea from the U.S. list of countries that sponsor terrorism.

Hill planned consultations on the nuclear issue "to move the process forward," said a U.S. State Department spokesman in Washington, speaking on customary condition of anonymity.

Hill had appeared to be headed back to Washington early Thursday from Tokyo, where he was wrapping up several days of diplomacy in China, South Korea and Japan.

Efforts to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear program began in August of 2003 in the six-nation negotiations.

South Korea welcomed Hill's visit to North Korea as "efforts to build mutual trust," and expressed hope it would result in concrete steps toward the North's denuclearization.

China, which sponsors the six-nation talks, said its foreign minister, Yang Jiechi, would also visit North Korea on July 2-4.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said, however, that a date for the next round of six-party talks has yet to be set.

Hill had said in Tokyo that he would like the next round to be held sometime after July 4. He said in Seoul that he expected the Yongbyon reactor to be shut down in a matter of weeks.

Visits to North Korea by high-ranking U.S. officials are extremely rare. Hill's trip was the first such visit since his predecessor as assistant secretary traveled there in October 2002.

The highest-ranking U.S. official ever to visit North Korea was former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who met North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in late 2000.

The U.S. and North Korea do not have formal diplomatic relations.

Hill was to meet with North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan, his counterpart in the six-party talks, the State Department said. He was to return to South Korea on Friday and then travel to Japan on Saturday.

Paik Hak-soon, another top North Korea expert in Seoul, said Hill may meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Il if the diplomat "went there as a U.S. presidential envoy."

Hill's trip followed the resolution this week of the banking dispute as well as an announcement that U.N. nuclear monitors would visit North Korea next week.

Under the February deal, North Korea pledged to shut down its Yongbyon reactor, its main nuclear processing facility, by the middle of April in exchange for energy and economic aid.

However, Pyongyang refused to shut any of its facilities until about $25 million in North Korean funds were freed from frozen accounts at a Macau bank, Banco Delta Asia, and missed the April deadline. No new deadline has been set.

The U.S. endorsed the release of funds, and Hill said Tuesday that the money had been deposited in a North Korean bank account and that the case was closed.