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Three days of talks between high-level U.S. and North Korean envoys have raised hopes that the stalemated six-way negotiations on the North Korean nuclear problem will resume soon. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill and North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan held a series of exclusive meetings in Berlin from Jan. 16.
A South Korean Foreign Ministry official said that the six-party talks will likely resume late this month or early next month.
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North Korea's top nuclear negotiator Kim Ky-gwan leaves the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, Germany, after a 45-minute meeting with his U.S. counterpart Christopher Hill Thursday. /Yonhap
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The U.S. chief negotiator proposed to his North Korean counterpart that the talks, which would see the North abandon its nuclear program and relations between the countries normalized, be broken into 30 categories. Those categories would then be bundled into in five or six packages.
Diplomatic sources said that the two sides are close to an initial agreement in which North Korea temporarily halts the operations of its nuclear facilities including one in Yongbyon, in return for U.S. fuel aid to the Communist country.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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