Asia-Pacific

US envoy in Beijing to ease Korean tensions

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-01-05 22:20

BEIJING - A US special envoy arrived in Beijing Wednesday night as part of a three-nation tour that aims to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

Stephen Bosworth, US special representative for Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) policy, did not speak to reporters after arriving at Beijing International Airport.

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Sung Kim, the US envoy for six-party talks, is accompanying Bosworth to Seoul and Beijing, the US State Department said in a statement.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Tuesday Bosworth will meet with Chinese officials in Beijing but without specifying exactly whom he will meet with.

Bosworth arrived in Beijing from Seoul, where he had talks with high-ranking Republic of Korea (ROK) officials, including the foreign minister and the top envoy on the DPRK nuclear issue.

Bosworth's visit comes after both the DPRK and the ROK signaled that the resumption of the six-party talks on the Korean nuclear issue would be possible.

Pyongyang, which once declared the six-way talks dead, expressed its willingness to return to the negotiating table.

ROK President Lee Myung-bak said he hoped to achieve the nuclear disarmament of Pyongyang this year through the six-party negotiations, in an apparent reversal of his usual hard-line stance against Seoul's rival.

"We look forward to being able to launch those (negotiations) at a reasonably early time," Bosworth told reporters in Seoul.

The last round of six-party talks took place in Beijing in December 2008.

Bosworth will fly to Tokyo Thursday.