Top U.S. nuclear envoy Hill back in S. Korea after N. Korea trip

SEOUL, Oct. 3 Kyodo - Top U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill, who returned from North Korea earlier Friday, said he had ''substantive and lengthy discussions'' in Pyongyang.

''We went to have very substantive and lengthy discussions about the issue of
the verification protocol to get through the second phase (of the North's
denuclearization process),'' Hill told reporters after holding talks with his
South Korean counterpart Kim Sook at South Korean Foreign Ministry.
He declined to go into details of talks he had with North Korean officials,
saying he first must brief member countries involved in the six-party process
and also report to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Washington.
''What I can tell is the discussions in Pyongyang were quite substantive and we
went into great details and were quite lengthy,'' Hill said.
Kim, special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs,
said, ''It's too early to tell if the atmosphere (on the North's
denuclearization process) has become better or not.''
Hill returned to South Korea via the truce village Panmunjeom after a three-day
visit aimed at salvaging the faltering six-party talks to dismantle North
Korea's nuclear programs.
Hill, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, briefed
Japan's top nuclear negotiator Akitaka Saiki, who arrived in Seoul earlier
Friday, about the results of his talks in Pyongyang.
Hill said he had met with his North Korean counterpart Kim Kye Gwan, with North
Korea's foreign minister and with an army general in Pyongyang.
Saiki said after his meeting with Hill that it is ''premature to evaluate'' how
the talks went, but added he was sure they have not broken down or
''ruptured.''
Saiki also said the Japanese government will receive a more-detailed
explanation of Hill's Pyongyang discussions and that further Japanese policy
will be decided after that.
On the North Korean abduction of Japanese citizens in the 1970s, Saiki said,''
Ambassador Hill asked the North Koreans to respond to the Japanese abduction
issue'' and Kim Kye Gwan listened ''in a serious manner, taking notes while
listening.''
He offered no other details, however.
Hill said earlier he is to travel to Beijing on Saturday to brief Chinese
officials about his trip to North Korea.
The six-party talks process involving the two Koreas, the United States, China,
Japan and Russia has stalled due to a spat between Washington and Pyongyang
over the verification process of North Korea's nuclear declaration.
The standoff delayed the removal of North Korea from the U.S. list of
terror-sponsoring countries, which in turn prompted Pyongyang to move forward
resuming operations at the Yongbyon nuclear complex, a site that was on the
road to being disabled as part of a six-way deal.
A U.S. State Department official said recently that the United States may
remove North Korea from the blacklist once Pyongyang submits its verification
plan to China, which hosts the six-way talks, rather than when a formal accord
is reached on verification.
Hill's visit to North Korea came amid growing concerns North Korea is
abandoning its promise to disable its nuclear facilities. North Korea stopped
disablement activities at the Yongbyon complex in mid-August and began work to
restore the facilities last month.
North Korea said last week it has barred inspectors from the International
Atomic Energy Agency from entering the Yongbyon complex and it would
reintroduce nuclear materials into nuclear facilities.
==Kyodo