By DPA
Washington : Six-nation talks to begin outlining a plan for North Korea's nuclear disarmament should begin next month after Pyongyang has completed the closing of a key nuclear facility, said a top US diplomat.
US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the US envoy for negotiations with North Korea, said Monday he expects the six-nation talks to take place in Beijing in July to discuss supplying economic and energy assistance to North Korea and a complete declaration from Pyongyang to end its nuclear programme.
"What we'd be trying to do is to plot the next set of initiatives," Hill told reporters in Washington after a trip to Asia that included a visit to Pyongyang, the first by a Bush administration official in five years.
North Korea has invited the International Atomic Energy Agency to the country to oversee the closing of the nuclear reactor and reprocessing facilities at Yongbyon. North Korea refused to meet an April deadline to shut the facility because of a dispute over $25 million in a North Korean account frozen under US sanctions on a bank in Macau.
North Korea confirmed Monday that it had now received the money, opening the way to proceed with closing Yongbyon and resuming the six-nation talks that include China, Japan, Russia, the US and two Koreas.
The upcoming and subsequent nuclear talks will address disabling the Yongbyon reactor and eventually the normalization of US-North Korean relations.
Hill said the US is hopeful the six-nation talks will lead to the complete disarmament of North Korea's nuclear programme next year, including the surrendering of any nuclear bombs already in Pyongyang's possession and fissile materials that can be used to make weapons.
North Korea detonated a nuclear device for the first time in October, sparking worldwide outrage and prompt UN Security Council sanctions.