China said its foreign minister had arrived in North Korea on Monday, the latest official to visit the reclusive state amid signs of progress towards implementation of a nuclear disarmament agreement.
Yang Jiechi's three-day trip follows a visit by officials from the UN's nuclear watchdog last week after North Korea agreed to move ahead on the six-country disarmament-for-aid deal. China's official Xinhua news agency said that Yang's North Korean counterpart, Pak Ui-chun, held a banquet for him in Pyongyang's Mansudae Hall.
China, the closest communist North Korea has to an ally, hosts the disarmament talks that also include South Korea, the United States, Japan and Russia. The six reached a deal on February 13 under which impoverished North Korea would receive energy aid, security guarantees and better diplomatic standing in return for ending its nuclear arms programmes.
The agreement then stalled due to a dispute over some $25 million in North Korean funds which had been frozen in a Macau bank under pressure from Washington. Following a surprise visit to Pyongyang by US envoy Christopher Hill and the release of the funds last month, North Korea agreed to implement the deal, and invited an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) delegation to visit last week.
The team led by inspector Olli Heinonen made a trip to the Yongbyon reactor, about 100 km (60 miles) from the capital, the first by IAEA officials since Pyongyang kicked out the Vienna-based agency's inspectors in December 2002.
After expelling nuclear inspectors, North Korea opted out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, announced it had atomic bombs and, last year, carried out its first nuclear test. Heinonen said on Saturday that the IAEA had clarified how to monitor the disabling of Yongbyon.
But he said the timing of the long-negotiated shutdown needed consultation between North Korea and others in the six-party talks to iron out the details. Hill has said the next round of talks could be held "at some point during the week of July 10", although this would ultimately be up to the Chinese organising the meeting.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.