S. Korean nuclear envoy to visit China this week

SEOUL, Aug. 24 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's chief nuclear envoy will travel to China this week, the foreign ministry said Wednesday, amid a flurry of diplomatic efforts to revive long-stalled multilateral nuclear disarmament talks with North Korea. Wi Sung-lac will leave for Beijing on Thursday for one-day talks with his Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei, the ministry said in a statement. The fresh meeting between the chief nuclear envoys of South Korea and China would come a day after North Korea leader Kim Jong-il, who is on a rare visit to Russia, is widely expected to meet Russian President Dmitry Medvedev for summit talks partly aimed at breaking the impasse over Pyongyang's nuclear programs. The six-party talks on ending the North's nuclear weapons programs have been stalled since late 2008 when Pyongyang left the discussion table. After sharply raising regional tensions last year, by waging two military attacks on South Korea and revealing its uranium enrichment program, the North has expressed interest in rejoining the talks that also involve the United States, Russia and Japan. In late July, North Korea and the U.S. held rare high-level meetings in New York on how to resume the six-nation nuclear talks. The New York meeting followed talks between chief nuclear envoys of South Korea and North Korea in Indonesia on the sidelines of an Asian security conference in which they agreed to make joint efforts to reopen the six-party talks. South Korea and the U.S. said the North must demonstrate its seriousness about denuclearizing before the six-party talks could take place.