South Korea to press North on ending nuclear arms

North Korea's chief nuclear envoy looked set on Tuesday to make a rare trip to the United States while South Korea sent a top official to Pyongyang to persuade the North to quickly start scrapping its nuclear arms program.

North Korean nuclear negotiator Kim Kye-gwan arrived in Beijing on Tuesday, accompanied by a senior official in charge of relations with the United States, Japan's Kyodo news agency said.

Kyodo said Kim could leave for the United States as early as Wednesday. North Korea has few air links with the outside world and its officials often travel via China.

Reclusive North Korea agreed earlier this month at six-way talks to shut down its main nuclear reactor, the source of its weapons-grade plutonium, in return for energy aid. It separately said it would halt its seven-month boycott of talks with Seoul.

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said on Tuesday North Korea needed repeated reassurance that it would not be threatened by force before it would give up its nuclear arms.

"This is a matter of mutual relationships," Roh told a news conference, saying U.S. policy on the North "had not been consistent like South Korea's" and suggesting Pyongyang had reason to be wary of U.S. overtures.

Roh added that until ties between Washington and Pyongyang had improved considerably, it would be futile for the two Koreas' leaders to meet in a summit.

The two Koreas were beginning a four-day meeting in Pyongyang on Tuesday, their first high-level contact in seven months. Seoul officials said family reunions and food aid for the impoverished North would be on the agenda.

"The most important thing to discuss would be how to cooperate between the South and North to swiftly implement the February 13 nuclear agreement," South Korean Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung said before leaving for Pyongyang:

North Korea's July 2006 missile launches and October 9 nuclear test chilled what had been improving ties between the two Koreas, which remain technically at war more than half a century after their 1950-53 conflict.

Seoul has said it could resume the food aid it suspended after the missile test if it saw progress in the six-way talks on ending Pyongyang's pursuit of atomic weapons.

South Korea was likely to send the first batch of energy aid to Pyongyang if it began shutting down its reactor.

RARE NORTH KOREAN VISIT

Analysts said the North's recent diplomatic actions, coming after the U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions in response to its nuclear test, were encouraging but it was best to be cautious until Pyongyang actually delivered on its pledges.

The State Department said on Monday that nuclear envoy Kim might visit San Francisco to meet non-governmental groups and then go to New York for talks with his U.S. counterpart. Such talks are envisaged under the February 13 nuclear agreement.

The agreement, reached four months after Pyongyang stunned the world with its first nuclear test, requires the secretive communist state to allow international nuclear inspections.

The deal also called for a working group on normalization of U.S.-North Korean relations to meet within 30 days. The United States proposed that it meet in New York, where U.S. and North Korean officials sometimes have contact.

The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said last week he would meet the North Korean government in March to discuss the shutdown of its nuclear arms program and bring it back under U.N. supervision.

(With additional reporting by Jack Kim in Seoul, George Nishiyama in Tokyo and Arshad Mohammed in Washington)

source:http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSSEO22152620070227?pageNumber=1