US top nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill arrived in South Korea Tuesday after a brief meeting with his North Korean counterpart in Beijing for talks on jump-starting stalled six- nation negotiations on ending Pyongyang's atomic programme, according to dpa. According to South Korea's Yonhap news agency, North Korea's Kim Kye Gwan and Hill held discussions at the North Korean embassy in the Chinese capital in an unannounced meeting, Yonhap said. The meeting followed Kim's arrival in Beijing Tuesday on a rare trip outside North Korea. No details from the talks were available but Hill later said upon his arrival in Seoul that he had a good discussion with the North Korean envoy on the entire process of ending the nuclear programme and the next steps to be taken. Speaking to reporters, Hill stressed that Washington would show no flexibility over the question of North Korea declaring all of its nuclear facilities, materials and programmes. "We are not talking about breaking apart the declaration," Hill said in reference media speculation that the US could accept a partial declaration. "I keep hearing about that. But it is not coming from inside the process." Hill expressed frustration on the same issue on Monday over what he deemed North Korea's reluctance to submit a full declaration. "We're stuck on the need for a complete and correct declaration," Yonhap quoted him as saying. North Korea had pledged to submit the declaration and disable its main nuclear facility by the end of 2007 in return for energy and economic aid. It submitted a list in November, but the United States called it incomplete, and talks on North Korea's nuclear programme involving North and South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia have been stalled since then. Seoul was Hill's second stop after Beijing in the US official's travels to three Asian countries involved in the nuclear talks. Hill plans to travel to Tokyo Wednesday night as the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs lays the groundwork for a visit to the region by his boss Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the beginning of next week. Rice plans to attend the inauguration of South Korean president- elect Lee Myung Bak Monday in Seoul before travelling to Beijing and Tokyo. Her trip is also to include discussions on the nuclear negotiations with North Korea. Speculation has sprung up that Rice might make an unannounced visit to North Korea in connection with a historic concert by the New York Philharmonic orchestra Tuesday in Pyongyang, but diplomats said they had received no indications of such a visit by Rice. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il was expected to attend the concert.
