U.S. Official To Check N. Korean Progress

The top U.S. negotiator for talks on North Korea's nuclear program will make a rare visit to that country on Monday to inspect work to disable its main nuclear reactor, a senior State Department official said Tuesday.

Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill will be the highest-level U.S. official to check on the work to make North Korea's Yongbyon reactor unusable, a key milestone in the international bargain that North Korea made to eliminate its weapons in exchange for economic aid and other perks.

Hill was making the quick visit in between diplomatic meetings in neighboring Japan and South Korea, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the previously unannounced plans. North Korea invited Hill for only his second visit as an end-of-the-year deadline nears for Pyongyang to declare the extent of its once-secret nuclear program.

Hill and other envoys are expected to meet separately with the North Koreans next week in what will likely be the six-nation international bargaining group's final session before the deadline. That session in Beijing has not yet been announced.

The last round of six-party talks was held in Beijing in late September. The sides issued an agreement in which North Korea promised to disable its closed Yongbyon nuclear reactor by the end of this year in exchange for economic aid and political concessions.

At the next meeting, North Korea is expected to lay out elements of a draft declaration detailing its nuclear programs.

The six parties - North and South Korea, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia - issued an agreement in early October in which North Korea promised to disable its closed Yongbyon nuclear reactor by the end of this year in exchange for economic aid and political concessions.

U.S. nuclear experts have been in North Korea since early this month to disable the reactor, which produced plutonium for bombs.

"The process to disable the North's nuclear facilities is under way," South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon said. "The process is going well."