Christopher Hill, the chief U.S. envoy to North Korean nuclear talks, listens to journalists questions during a news conference in Vienna November 14, 2007.
(REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top U.S. negotiator for the North Korean nuclear talks will visit that country between December 3 and December 5, the State Department said on Tuesday.
Christopher Hill, the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs, will meet with his North Korean counterpart Kim Kye-gwan and possibly other officials in Pyongyang, State Department spokeswoman Nancy Beck said.
He will also travel to Yongbon to observe the disablement of the nuclear reactor there, and meet with the U.S. experts who aim to finish the job by the end of the year, Beck said.
On the same trip, Hill will join negotiators from North and South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia and China in Beijing to assess Pyongyang's denuclearization process.
North Korea closed down its main reactor in July under a February deal. In exchange for disabling its plutonium production facilities, the impoverished North will receive 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil or equivalent aid. The United States will also move toward taking North Korea off a U.S. terrorism blacklist.
Hill last visited North Korea in June.
(Reporting by Arshad Mohammed, writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Philip Barbara)
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