Visits to Beijing, Washington planned to try to restart dialogue with Pyongyang
South Korea will seek consultations among high-level officials of countries involving the stalled six-party talks designed to wean North Korea from its nuclear weapons ambitions, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said. Vice Foreign Minister Lee Kyu-hyung will leave for Beijing this weekend to be briefed on the results of Chinese top nuclear envoy Wu Dawei's recent trip to Pyongyang, the ministry said. Wu visited the communist country in order to persuade it to return to the six-party talks, which involve the two Koreas, Russia, the U.S., Japan, and China, and have been stalled since November after holding a brief fifth round.Seoul's chief nuclear negotiator Chun Young-woo also plans to fly to Washington over the weekend to meet with his U.S. counterparts, including Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, according to the ministry. The meeting with Secretary Hill, who has just completed a tour of some of the six-party member countries amid heightened tensions sparked by the North's unexpected missile launches, will come several weeks after the one in Seoul earlier this month.
