By Kim Young-jin
The chief nuclear envoys of China and South Korea are expected to meet separately this week with senior U.S. officials in Washington, D.C. to discuss the resumption of the six-party talks on North Korea’s denuclearization, amid a flurry of diplomacy among involved parties.
Wu Dawei, Beijing’s representative for Korean Peninsula issues, was slated to meet Wednesday (local time) with Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg and others, State Department spokesman Phillip Crowley said Tuesday.
On the same day, Wu told reporters in Tokyo that Beijing plans to put forth a fresh proposal to resume the stalled six-party talks, but did not elaborate, according to Kyodo News. He was there to discuss the talks with Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada.
The meeting would follow last week’s surprise summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and Chinese President Hu Jintao in northeastern China, during which Kim called for an early resumption of the talks, according to the state-run media of the two countries.
Wu has been on the move of late, visiting Pyongyang and Seoul last month, where he proposed a tiered plan under which the North would meet with Washington before reopening the forum in full.
Meanwhile, officials here said Seoul’s top nuclear negotiator, Wi Sung-lac, will fly to Washington Thursday.
"Wi will discuss recent sanctions (imposed on North Korea by the U.S.) and how we should handle the situation, and also the current state of affairs in North Korea," an official told reporters on the condition of anonymity.
The meetings come as China cranks up its efforts to kick start the talks, which last met in December 2008. Pyongyang walked away from the table after being slapped with U.N. sanctions for its missile and nuclear tests last year.
Efforts for resumption were thrown into limbo in March after the sinking of a South Korean warship in waters near the inter-Korean border, which Seoul and Washington have blamed on the North. Pyongyang has denied the allegation.
In response to the incident, Washington released a list of sanctions on Pyongyang, Monday, freezing the assets of North Korean entities allegedly linked to its nuclear program.
Seoul, which cut off nearly all trade and aid to the North after the sinking, has demanded an apology from the North as a precondition for resumption of the talks.
But South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan last week signaled a shift in stance, calling on Pyongyang to allow inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency back in and to restart the process of disabling its nuclear facilities.
Both sets of talks will also include Stephen Bosworth, U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell and Sung Kim, special envoy for the six-party talks.