Stephen Bosworth, U.S. special envoy to North Korea, has arrived in Seoul to engage in consultations with South Korean officials prior to his highly-anticipated visit to North Korea, the Yonhap news agency reported.
According to Yonhap, "Bosworth will fly into Pyongyang on Tuesday from the U.S. Air Base in Osan for a three-day trip, during which he is expected to meet the North's Vice Foreign Minister Kang Sok-ju as part of efforts to resume the six-party talks."
The seasoned U.S. diplomat and former U.S. ambassador to South Korea is accompanied on his trip by four other U.S. officials, including Sung Kim, U.S. negotiator to the six-party talks.
The six-party negotiations over North Korea's nuclear program, which involve Russia, the United States, China, Japan and the two Koreas, came to a halt in April when North Korea walked out of negotiations in protest against the United Nations' condemnation of its missile tests.
The country is banned from conducting nuclear or ballistic tests under UN Resolution 1718, adopted after North Korea's first nuclear test on October 9, 2006.
However, Pyongyang carried out a second nuclear test on May 25 this year, followed by a series of short-range missile launches, and has threatened to build up its nuclear arsenal to counter what it calls hostile U.S. policies.
The move led to the UN imposing new sanctions on North Korea banning the import and export of nuclear material and all weapons except small arms.
The North has recently hinted, though, that it was willing to return to six-party talks, but insisted it first negotiate directly with the United States to repair "hostile relations."
Washington has been cautious about the expectations of Bosworth's trip, emphasizing that his visit is solely aimed at bringing the reclusive communist regime to talks in multilateral format rather than engaging in bilateral discussions of N. Korea denuclearization issues.
MOSCOW, December 7 (RIA Novosti)
