Top US envoy to visit China, Japan
(AP/AFP)
Updated: 2006-01-18 17:29

Hill in Beijing

The chief US envoy on the North Korean nuclear issue, Christopher Hill, paid a quick visit to Beijing, the US embassy said on Wednesday, just hours after Kim Jong-Il left the Chinese capital.

The chief US envoy on the North Korean nuclear issue, Christopher Hill, seen here in November 2005, paid a quick visit to Beijing, the US embassy said, just hours after Kim Jong-Il reportedly left the Chinese capital. [AFP]

"I can confirm that Christopher Hill is in Beijing," a US embassy spokeswoman told AFP, adding he had arrived in the morning and was only scheduled to stay for the day.

Hill's visit follows the highly secretive trip of Kim, the North Korean leader, to China, which reported ended on Tuesday night when he boarded a special train back to Pyongyang.

The visits by Hill and Kim has raised speculation of possible progress in the long-running six-party talks aimed at dismantling North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

South Korea's Dong-A Ilbo newspaper said that Hill would meet with Kim Kye-Gwan, North Korea's negotiator in the six-party talks, in Beijing on Wednesday.

However the US embassy would not comment on a possible meeting between the US and North Korean diplomats.

"I cannot confirm that he met with his North Korean counterpart," the embassy spokeswoman said.

According to the US embassy, Hill met with China's vice foreign affairs minister, former ambassador to the United States Yang Jiechi, as well as the local US business community in Beijing.

Hill was in Beijing just last week for talks with his Chinese counterpart to the six-party talks, Wu Dawei.

His latest trip to Beijing comes at the end of an Asian tour that has taken him to Japan and South Korea, both six-party member nations, as well as Malaysia, Cambodia and Vietnam.

The six-party talks, which involve the United States, the two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia, began in 2003 and are currently stalled over Pyongyang's demand that US financial sanctions against Pyongyang be lifted.

North Korea has insisted since the last round of talks in November that it will boycott further negotiations unless the sanctions are lifted.

US officials also blacklisted eight North Korean companies in connection with weapons proliferation in October.