By RIA Novosti
Moscow : High-ranking U.S. and North Korean officials will meet in Geneva later Thursday in a bid to restart the country’s nuclear disarmament process after Pyongyang missed an end of year deadline.
Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the chief U.S. negotiator, is seeking reassurance from his North Korean counterpart, Kim Gye Gwan in Switzerland that Pyongyang will continue to fulfill its nuclear obligations as agreed in six party talks last year.
North Korea has told the U.S. that it will not develop its uranium enrichment program or cooperate with other countries in the nuclear sector. However, last month, Mike McConnell, director of U.S. National Intelligence, said North Korea had broken the pledge it made in 2007 to halt all nuclear activities.
Under an agreement reached last October between the United States, Japan, Russia, China, and North and South Koreas, Pyongyang was to halt its nuclear programs and provide full information on nuclear activities by the end of 2007 in exchange for economic and political concessions. However, after the North missed the deadline, the six-way negotiations stalled.
Pyongyang has accused the U.S. of failing to strike it off the list of states sponsoring terrorism and lift trade restrictions, Washington’s obligations under the six-party deal.
Since the October deal, South Korea, China and Russia have each supplied North Korea with 50,000 metric tons of fuel oil.