A group of US experts on Korean affairs will visit Pyongyang Saturday for talks with policy makers regarding North Korea's nuclear weapons programme, a news report said.
The trip comes as Stephen Bosworth, US special representative for North Korean policy, is scheduled to visit the communist state on December 8 in order to persuade it to return to six-party nuclear disarmament talks.
Korea Economic Institute (KEI) president Jack Pritchard, director of KEI research and academic affairs Nicole Finneman, and Scott Snyder, director of the Center for US-Korea Policy at the Asia Foundation, will stay in Pyongyang until Tuesday, Yonhap news agency said, quoting diplomatic sources.
"Their trip to North Korea is being made after consultations with the US government," the source told Yonhap.
"They are likely to meet with key North Korean officials concerned with the US and the country's nuclear weapons programme," the source said, adding they will brief the US government on the result.
North Korea quit the six-party talks in April, a month before it tested a second atomic weapon. Its leader Kim Jong-Il said last month he was ready to return to the talks, but only if bilateral discussions with the United States are satisfactory.
The six-nation talks, which began more than six years ago, group the two Koreas, the United States, China, Russia and Japan.
earlier related report
Chinese defence chief to visit N.Korea: state media
Beijing (AFP) Nov 20, 2009 –
Chinese Defence Minister Liang Guanglie will visit North Korea soon, state-run media said Friday, amid efforts to draw Pyongyang back to nuclear disarmament talks.
Liang's trip, which also will take him to Japan and Thailand, will begin on Sunday and run through December 5, the China News Service reported, without giving a specific itinerary.
It gave no reason for the trip but the announcement follows a visit to China this week by US President Barack Obama during which he and China's Hu Jintao called for an early resumption of six-party talks on the North's nuclear drive.
The talks include the United States, Russia, Japan, the two Koreas and hosts China.
Obama said in Seoul on Thursday that the US envoy on the nuclear issue, Stephen Bosworth, would visit Pyongyang next month for direct talks aimed at restarting the long-running disarmament negotiations.
The North quit the talks in April, a month before staging a second atomic weapons test.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il said last month his country was ready to return to the talks but only if bilateral discussions with the United States were satisfactory.
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