Chief US negotiator Christopher Hill could meet his North Korean counterpart Kim Kye-Gwan in Beijing this week, the State Department said Monday amid new talks on the Stalinist state's nuclear program.
Hill, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian affairs, is due to hold bilateral contacts with Chinese officials from Wednesday regarding international efforts to dismantle North Korea's atomic facilities.
"Chris may take this possibility while he is there to meet with Kim Kye-Gwan. I don't think that has been finally settled yet but it is something that could happen," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
Hill and Kim lead their respective delegations at long-running six-party negotiations, also involving China, Japan, Russia and South Korea, on North Korea.
After more than four years of stalemate, during which the North tested its first atomic weapon, efforts to permanently shut down its production of weapons-grade plutonium are gathering pace.
The hardline communist state agreed in February to declare and disable its nuclear programs in return for one million tons of heavy fuel or equivalent energy aid, and later set a year-end deadline for this.
North Korea promised Monday to start disabling nuclear plants this week, a South Korean official said as six-party officials met on the inter-Korean border to discuss energy aid worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
At a congressional hearing Thursday, Hill faced tough questioning over the US administration's diplomatic approach to North Korea in light of suspicions that the communist state may have provided nuclear materials to Syria.
Israel has said it bombed a military target inside Syria on September 6 but has provided no more details to confirm whether the site was a nuclear facility. Hill said he could not comment on the raid.
