A senior U.S. official is set to visit North Korea next month, the U.S. State Department said. Christopher Hill, the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs, will visit North Korea between December 3 and December 5, 2007. Hill, who last visited the country in June, is set to meet with North Korean vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan and possibly other officials in Pyongyang, State Department spokeswoman Nancy Beck said. Hill will also travel to Yongbon, North Korea to observe the disablement of the nuclear reactor there, and also meet with the supervising American experts, Beck said. The nuclear disablement in North Korea is set to conclude by the end of the year, she said. Hill will then be hosted in Beijing along with other negotiators from North and South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia and China, in order to assess Pyongyang's denuclearization process, Beck said. North Korea closed down its main nuclear reactor in July under a joint agreement reached at the end of the February six-party talks (participants include representatives from the United States, China, North Korea, Japan, Russia, and South Korea).
