The New Nation - Internet Edition

Reuters, Beijing

The chief U.S. envoy to talks on North Korea's nuclear program arrived in Beijing on Monday, the first leg of a northeast Asia tour aimed at forging progress on disarming the isolated state. Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspaper said in its evening edition that U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill was likely to meet his North Korean counterpart, Kim Kye-gwan, in Beijing, but Hill himself suggested otherwise. "Not that I'm aware of," he told reporters on arrival in Beijing, when asked if he would hold talks with Kim. He made no other comment. Hill will visit Seoul and Tokyo later in the week, ahead of a trip through the region by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The visits come amid stalled efforts to persuade North Korea, which defied international pressure and conducted a nuclear test in October 2006, to give up its atomic ambitions.