By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Yu Myung-hwan arrived in Shanghai Wednesday to oversee Seoul's preparations to participate in World Expo 2010, set to open there in May.
He flew to Beijing later in the day for talks with his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi, scheduled for Thursday, on resuming the six-party talks on ending North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
China is the host of the multinational disarmament talks also involving the two Koreas, the United States, Japan and Russia.
Beijing, a close ally of the communist North, is working to bring Pyongyang back to the six-way forum, which has been stalled for almost a year. North Korea says it will return to the talks only after U.N. sanctions, imposed shortly after its test-launch of a long-range missile last year, are removed.
Yu's three-day trip to China also includes a meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.
Wen visited Pyongyang last year and met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, who had then told Wen that the North may return to the nuclear talks following its bilateral talks with the United States. The North had one-on-one talks in late December, but is still refusing to return to the negotiating table.
Yu also plans to meet with China's police chief, Meng Jianzhu, in order to ask for support and cooperation for the protection of some 700,000 South Korean residents and North Korean defectors in China.