U.S. nuclear envoy arrives in Beijing to meet with Chinese officials

BEIJING: The American envoy to disarmament talks aimed at persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear programs arrived in Beijing on Wednesday for meetings with his Chinese counterparts.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said Tuesday in Jakarta that the discussions would center around the "next steps" in the six-nation process, which also involves South Korea, Russia and Japan.

"I am looking forward to talks in Beijing, we have come up with some ideas," said Hill, who was in the Indonesian capital as part of a tour of Southeast Asia. "But I don't want to go into them, until we see that they are actually a way out of this, rather than a way into another dead end."

He did not make any remarks on arrival in Beijing.

Negotiations have stalled since February, when Pyongyang pledged in a landmark agreement to shut down its nuclear reactor in exchange for energy aid.

But a financial dispute involving North Korean funds frozen in a Macau bank accused by the U.S. of aiding Pyongyang in money laundering and counterfeiting is holding up implementation.

The U.S. helped unfreeze the US$25 million (€18.6 million) being held in Banco Delta Asia, but the money's transfer has been delayed because foreign banks are unwilling to touch the funds.

The North has made the resolution of the banking row an absolute precondition for nuclear disarmament.

In Jakarta, Hill said the process would be "helped immeasurably" if Pyongyang began dismantling its nuclear reactor as agreed to in February.

"What the DPRK needs to do now is get moving on denuclearization," Hill said, using the abbreviation of the country's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.