By IRNA-Kyodo
Beijing : Work to have North Korea give a frank and full account of its nuclear programs will continue in the weeks ahead, the top U. S. nuclear negotiator said Friday, as he completed a stay in Beijing aimed at boosting the six-way process for Pyongyang’s denuclearization.
Christopher Hill, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, told reporters he believes a way to solve outstanding problems can be found, although that would also depend on North Korea.
”We’re going to try to continue to work on the declaration over the next couple of weeks,” Hill said at Beijing’s international airport.
”I think we can figure out a way (to solve problems), but that’s going to also depend on the DPRK,” Hill said, referring to North Korea by its official name the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Hill was on the third leg of a trip to the region amid a stall in the denuclearization process involving North and South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.
The U. S. envoy visited Japan and South Korea earlier in the week and is now going to Russia.
The trip came at a time when North Korea missed a Dec. 31 deadline to provide a list of all its nuclear programs, in addition to disabling its nuclear facilities in exchange for energy aid worth 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil. North Korea said last week it is not to blame for the failed deadline, saying it has disabled the facilities at the quickest pace possible and has notified the United States of the contents of a report on its nuclear programs compiled in November.
But the United States has said it does not regard the account as a final declaration, and has been urging Pyongyang to submit a ” complete and correct” list.
During his stay in Beijing, Hill met with Chinese counterpart in the six-party talks Wu Dawei as well as Wang Jiarui, the head of the Chinese Communist Party’s International Department who has made visits to North Korea in the past.
”We had a good discussion about the declaration,” Hill said of his talks with Wang on Friday morning.
Hill’s meeting with Vice Foreign Minister Wu, chair of the six-party meeting, on Thursday did not yield a date for the next gathering of the head of delegations of the six
countries.