Posted on : Nov.27,2006 22:37 KST Modified on : Nov.28,2006 21:55 KST

South Korea's nuclear envoy arrived in Beijing on Monday, saying that North Korea's "political will" will decide whether progress can be made at a new round of nuclear disarmament talks.

"The important thing is North Korea's political will to dismantle its nuclear weapons, not what we demand," Chun Yung-woo said upon arrival in Beijing. "The North is well aware of what it should do."

Chun's trip to China comes as his counterparts from North Korea, the U.S. and Japan either arrived or headed to the Chinese capital ahead of the next round of the talks, expected to restart within a few weeks after a one-year hiatus.

But Chun said his itinerary in Beijing is focused on talks with his Chinese counterpart, Wu Dawei, and that he had no plan to meet with other delegates.

"The main purpose of my trip is to meet with Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, who chairs the six-way talks," Chun told Yonhap News Agency before leaving Seoul.

In a meeting with Wu, Chun said he would "review the current situation and support" China's efforts to prepare for the upcoming six-party talks, adding that "a date will be set when there is a prospect of progress" in the negotiations.

Japan's chief nuclear envoy Kenichiro Sasae arrived in Beijing on Sunday. The U.S. envoy, Christopher Hill, was scheduled to fly to Beijing later Monday amid reports that he may meet Pyongyang's chief nuclear negotiator Kim Kye-gwan, possibly on Tuesday.

A ranking South Korean government official in Seoul said Hill plans to stop over in Seoul later this week on his way back home to brief South Korean diplomats on the results of his trip to Beijing.

Hill and Kim had a secret meeting in Beijing late last month, during which they agreed to revive the six-way talks that have been suspended because of Washington's financial sanctions against North Korea.

The breakthrough followed weeks of escalated tensions over the North's Oct. 9 nuclear test. Hill said North Korea had set no condition for its return to the negotiating table but Pyongyang insists that its decision was prompted by Washington's pledge to "discuss and resolve" financial sanctions imposed against it.

The U.S. blacklisted the Banco Delta Asia (BDA) in Macau in September last year, accusing it of helping North Korea's alleged counterfeiting and money laundering.

Related investigation by the U.S. Treasury is still under way, effectively freezing US$24 million in the North's accounts in the bank. North Korea called the measure "sanctions" and boycotted the nuclear talks.

Analysts say this week's North Korea-U.S. meeting in Beijing, if realized, will be a litmus test for the prospect of progress in the six-way talks.

South Korean officials said the basis of the upcoming talks will be a Sept. 19, 2005 joint statement, in which North Korea agreed to give up its nuclear programs in exchange for economic and security incentives.

But North Korea has made it clear that the progress of the talks will depend on whether the U.S. is willing to lift its financial sanctions on the communist country.

"North Korea is expected to reiterate its calls for the lifting of the BDA restrictions and the provision of light-water reactor," Korea University professor Nam Sung-wook said.

The U.S., for its part, will likely ask North Korea to clearly show its willingness to abandon its nuclear program, he said.

Japan's public broadcaster NHK reported that South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and U.S. President George W. Bush, during a meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam earlier this month, agreed to present a five-point must-do list to North Korea.

The list, as reported by NHK, includes Pyongyang's acceptance of U.N. inspections, shutdown of its nuclear test sites, reporting of all its nuclear facilities, halting the operation of the graphite-moderated reactor in Yongbyon, and speedy implementation of last year's Sept. 19 joint statement.

Seoul/Beijing, Nov. 27 (Yonhap News)

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