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U.S. chief nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill and his North Korean counterpart Kim Kye-gwan met three times on Tuesday, a day before six-nation talks on the North¡¯s nuclear program resumed in Beijing. First, a car carrying Kim arrived at the U.S. Embassy around 2 p.m. Korean standard time and the two talked for about five minutes in the compound. They then drove to a Sichuan-style restaurant near the China World Hotel, where they talked again over lunch for about an hour and a half.
Emerging from the talks, Hill said, "The atmosphere was very businesslike." But he added, "There's some other things we want to talk about." Kim said, "We had productive talks. This is the beginning." Before leaving Pyongyang the same day, Kim told foreign reporters, "We've already implemented the first-stage measure. What we need now is the second-stage action. During the upcoming talks, we will discuss the goal of the second-stage action, and what duties each nation has and what action each should take." Around 4:40 p.m., no more than an hour after parting, the two met again at the North Korean Embassy. They met for the first time in 25 days since Hill's surprise visit to Pyongyang on June 21.
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A member of the security personnel guards the entrance to the VIP's arrival area at the airport before the arrival of North Korean nuclear envoy Kim Kye-gwan in Beijing ahead of the six-party talks on Tuesday. After securing the shutdown of a North Korean nuclear reactor, negotiators flying into Beijing on Tuesday face the much harder task of coaxing Pyongyang to give up a trove of atomic secrets long guarded as vital for its survival./REUTERS
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On Tuesday, diplomats said, Hill and Kim focused on what concrete actions to take in the reporting of nuclear programs and the disablement of North Korea's nuclear facilities -- the second-stage measures under a Feb. 13 denuclearization agreement -- including what to do about a secret uranium enrichment program the U.S. believes Pyongyang has. They reportedly concentrated on how to link those steps with Pyongyang's demand to be struck from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.
The chief negotiators of the six participating nations meet on Wednesday afternoon, with emphasis on the second stage of the Feb. 13 deal. ¡°The six-party talks will be held in a good atmosphere because they come after North Korea shut down the Yongbyon nuclear reactor,¡± a government official in Seoul said. ¡°But they are unlikely to go smoothly given that the reporting and disablement of nuclear facilities will be much more difficult than the shutdown."
Meanwhile, Seoul's chief nuclear negotiator Chun Yung-woo held bilateral consultations with his counterparts from Japan and Russia on Tuesday afternoon.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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