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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| US envoy on N.Korea in surprise trip to Beijing |
| 2006-01-18 |
| The top U.S. envoy to talks on North Korea's nuclear program made a surprise trip to Beijing on Wednesday, which South Korean media reports said could mean he was meeting his counterpart from Pyongyang. Christopher Hill made a whistle-stop tour through Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing last week to meet negotiators on six-party talks, who group the two Koreas, the United States, Japan Russia and host China, and who last met in November. His visit on Wednesday came as North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was believed to have crossed back into North Korea by train from China ending a rare international trip conducted under a heavy veil of secrecy. The U.S. embassy in Beijing confirmed Hill had returned to Beijing for one day, following visits to Vietnam and Cambodia, and said he would meet Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, who is also the former ambassador to Washington. When asked if he would be meeting any representatives of North Korea an embassy spokeswoman said: "Not that I know of." But South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the abrupt change in schedule could indicate that Hill was meeting the North's top nuclear negotiator, Kim Kye-gwan, in Beijing. The six countries were meant to meet again early this year to try to make progress on North Korea's agreement in principle to dismantle its nuclear weapons in exchange for aid and security guarantees. But with Pyongyang angry at the United States over Washington's crackdown on its finances, the future of the talks is uncertain. The United States has clamped down on companies it suspects of helping North Korea with counterfeiting, money laundering and the drug trade, and says sanctions are a separate matter from the six-party talks. But North Korea has threatened to boycott the nuclear disarmament talks until the sanctions are lifted and said on Tuesday that Washington wants to bring down its communist leadership with the financial penalties. |
| Posted by:lotp |
| #3 Kimmie's holding out for another staring role in a puppet series. |
| Posted by: G. Galloway 2006-01-18 17:44 |
| #2 Collecting a package containing Kimmie's balls? |
| Posted by: mojo 2006-01-18 17:14 |
| #1 Did he have a few boxes of fine Brandy with him? |
| Posted by: Brett 2006-01-18 15:58 |