By Xinhua
Pyongyang : A senior US diplomat arrived in North Korea Thursday in a bid to persuade Pyongyang to make a full declaration of its nuclear programme.
Sung Kim, director of the State Department’s office of Korean affairs, arrived here after his visit to South Korea Tuesday and Wednesday.
Kim said at the airport that the main focus of his trip is to hold talks with the North Korea’s foreign ministry on issues related to the nuclear declaration.
Kim is expected to stay in North Korea until Feb 2.
Under an agreement reached in October 2007 at the six-party talks, which involve the US, North Korea, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia, North Korea agreed to disable its key nuclear facilities at the Yongbyon complex, and to declare all other nuclear programmes by the end of the year.
North Korea has denied that it has missed the deadline to submit the declaration, saying that as “other participating nations have delayed the fulfilment of their commitments, North Korea is compelled to adjust the tempo of the disablement of some nuclear facilities”.