The chief U.S. nuclear envoy was making his first trip to North Korea on Thursday ahead of the expected resumption of talks on halting Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program, the State Department said.
The surprise trip by Christopher Hill follows the resolution this week of a banking dispute that had held up progress toward disarmament for more than a year, and the announcement that UN nuclear monitors would visit the communist nation next week.
The trip is Hill’s first to North Korea, as well as the first by a U.S. nuclear envoy since the latest crisis with the North over its nuclear development began in late 2002.
Hill was visiting Pyongyang for consultations Thursday and Friday with his North Korean nuclear counterpart, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan.
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Items compiled from Tribune news services.
