By Bernama,
Seoul : South Korea replaced its chief nuclear negotiators Tuesday, putting the final touches on a sweeping shake-up of senior diplomats under the new government, Yonhap news agency reported.
Kim Sook, a veteran diplomat who spent most of his career handling North American affairs, takes the baton from Chun Yung-woo, who has been tapped the country’s ambassador to an European nation. The Foreign Ministry withheld the name of the nation, citing the need for receiving diplomatic agreement from it on Chun’s appointment.
Kim joined the Foreign Ministry in 1978. He led the ministry’s American affairs bureau from 2004-2006 after serving as Seoul’s consul-general in Toronto for three years from 2000.
The timing of his debut in the Beijing-based six-way talks on Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions remains undecided, despite reports of progress in efforts to restart the stalled negotiations.
Top U.S. nuclear interlocutor Christopher Hill and his North Korean counterpart Kim Kye-gwan held talks in Singapore last week to resolve a dispute over Pyongyang’s promise to account for its nuclear activity.
President George W. Bush supports the elements and format of North Korea’s declaration that were agreed in the Hill-Kim meeting, according to the White House.
“I believe so, yes,” White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said earlier in the day when asked if Bush approved of the compromise in Singapore, rebutting some South Korean media reports that the president is not satisfied with it.
North Korea was required to submit a full list of its nuclear holdings by the end of last year. It claims that it provided the declaration last November but the U.S. says it was unacceptable as it did not address Pyongyang’s alleged uranium enrichment programme and proliferation to Syria.
A compromise was reportedly reached in Singapore however, under which the communist state would “acknowledge” concerns about uranium and proliferation in a secret side-agreement.