Posted on 09/09/2007 10:28:38 PM PDT by yorkie
SEOUL (AFP) — US technical experts were to arrive in South Korea on Monday, en route to North Korea to discuss disabling a nuclear programme which has already produced at least one atomic bomb.
The US team led by Sung Kim, State Department director for Korean affairs, will join Russian and Chinese delegates in Pyongyang Tuesday to begin a five-day survey of key nuclear facilities.
The visit is seen as a hopeful sign that the communist state, which tested its first atomic bomb last October, is serious about permanently shutting down its nuclear plants.
Kim, who is also deputy US nuclear negotiator at the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear disarmament, will likely have talks over dinner with his South Korean counterpart Lim Sung-Nam, a Seoul official said.
The team will cross the heavily fortified North-South border at Panmunjom Tuesday.
Top US nuclear envoy Christopher Hill announced the September 11-15 trip last Friday, describing it as "an ambitious phase" in the six-party negotiations.
He is pushing for a permanent nuclear shutdown in North Korea by the end of this year.
The United States, China and Russia are the three nuclear powers negotiating with North Korea in talks which also include South Korea and Japan.
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