US envoy for North Korea to visit Seoul
By DPA, IANSMonday, January 3, 2011
WASHINGTON - The US’ envoy for North Korea was scheduled to arrive in South Korea Tuesday, on a four-day trip which was also to include China and Japan.
Stephen Bosworth was expected to discuss ways to defuse tensions between North and South Korea, and how best to resume the stalled six-party talks on Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme, the US State Department said Sunday.
Bosworth planned to arrive in Seoul Tuesday, travel to Beijing the next day and to Tokyo Thursday.
He was to be accompanied on the first two legs of his trip by Sung Kim, the US special envoy for the six-party talks that involve Japan, China and Russia, and which have been on hold since 2008.
Concerns have risen in recent weeks amid increasing tensions between Pyongyang and Seoul, and the news of a previously unknown, advanced uranium-enrichment facility at Yongbyon in the North.
The State Department announced last week that US Defence Secretary Robert Gates would travel to East Asia Jan 9 to visit China, Japan and finally South Korea.
