U.S. and North Korean envoys met in Beijing on Monday ahead of six-nation talks aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear programs, according to AP. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said his meeting with Kim Kye Gwan was «very businesslike» and aimed to smooth the way for the two-day talks later this week in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang. «We're not going to have a lot of time for a six-party meeting ... so we really need to be sure these issues are well teed up before that event,» Hill said. «I think we have an agreement that we're going to try to identify types of disablement and how we can approach it,» Hill said, referring to the dismantlement of North Korea's nuclear facilities. «We have some common definitions of disablement but we haven't gotten to the phase after that.» Hill said he and Kim have a tentative agreement to meet in late August to discuss the possibility of normalizing relations between their countries. Hill said the Shenyang meeting would discuss technical issues surrounding North Korea's full declaration of all nuclear programs and a schedule under which they would be disabled. Hill was also due to meet with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei on Tuesday, China's official Xinhua News Agency said. The North committed to the declaration and shut down in a February agreement under which it would receive energy assistance in exchange for ending its nuclear programs. «We would hope that declaration would come fairly early, followed by the disablement plan,» Hill said. «We've got to sit down and work that through,» he said. The meetings come amid increased optimism over North Korea's actions, with the leaders of the two Koreas to hold their first summit in seven years later this month. South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun is set to travel to Pyongyang, the North's capital, for the Aug. 28-30 talks with Kim Jong Il. The last round of the nuclear talks _ consisting of the United States, two Koreas, China, Russia and Japan _ was held in Beijing last month. The next round is expected to be held during the first week of September. North Korea switched off its sole operating nuclear reactor in July as part of a February agreement with the five other countries. The move was its first step to scale back its nuclear weapons development since the current standoff began in 2002. North Korea has received 50,000 tons of heavy oil from South Korea as a reward for that first step, and the energy-starved country is to eventually receive aid equivalent to 950,000 tons of oil for declaring all its nuclear programs and disabling its facilities. The reactor shutdown was the first step North Korea has taken to scale back its nuclear ambitions since the crisis began in late 2002, when a 1994 disarmament deal fell apart and the North reactivated its reactor to produce plutonium for bombs. Confirming it could build a weapon, the North conducted its first-ever nuclear test detonation in October.
