A high-ranking South Korean Foreign Ministry official did not deny the report, telling reporters in Washington D.C. that after the Feb. 13 agreement, Hill asked Kim to visit the U.S. and told the North Korean official that he would like to visit Pyongyang as well. Asked whether the North Korean visit was a working-level trip to normalize relations with Washington envisaged under the agreement, the official said, “It’s up to the U.S. and North Korea to determine the purpose” of the trip.

North Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan/AP

Another official said it has been agreed that the next round of six-party talks will take place on March 19, “so working-level talks must take place before then, and this trip by Kim can be viewed as involving such a meeting.” The official added Hill and Kim are chief negotiators, so it can be understood that they will talk “comprehensively about bilateral relations.” The North and the U.S. are believed to be in the final stage of fixing a date for the visit. Some seven officials will apparently form the North Korean delegation.

Regarding predictions that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice may visit North Korea, State Department officials said there are currently no such plans in the U.S.

However, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has been invited to visit North Korea to discuss the shutdown of its nuclear program, four years after the North expelled the agency’s inspectors and dropped out of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei said Friday that North Korea invited him to visit within the next few weeks to discuss how to implement the freeze of nuclear facilities and their eventual dismantlement under the six-party agreement. "The first (issue) of course is how to develop a plan to freeze the Yongbyon facilities, and more importantly to make sure that they come back as a fully-fledged member of the (International Atomic Energy) Agency," ElBaradei said. IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said ElBaradei would probably visit in the second week of March, after an agency board meeting on North Korea and Iran.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed confidence that ElBaradei’s visit would contribute to Pyongyang honoring the six-party agreement.

Meanwhile, a high-ranking source in Washington said the U.S. Treasury Department is soon expected to wrap up its investigation into North Korea’s account in the Macau-based Banco Delta Asia and ask Macau officials to end the freeze of legitimately acquired funds. If that happens, the Macau government will classify about $11 million of the $24 million as legitimate and take steps to unfreeze the money, he added.

(englishnews@chosun.com )