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BEIJING — The top American negotiator for the stalled six-nation talks on North Korean disarmament left Beijing on Sunday without meeting officials from Pyongyang as hoped, the U.S. Embassy said.
Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill met his Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei on Saturday as part of efforts to jump-start the disarmament process.
A U.S. State Department official said earlier that Hill might also meet with his North Korean counterpart Kim Kye Gwan in Beijing, but the U.S. Embassy here said Sunday that no such meeting took place.
U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Susan Stevenson said Hill had been in touch with North Korean officials through contacts in New York, where Pyongyang has representatives at the United Nations. She gave no details.
The U.S., the two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia have been trying to resolve a dispute over an agreement under which the North promised to dismantle its nuclear program in exchange for energy aid.
The North says the aid is late in coming, while Washington says Pyongyang has not yet provided a promised detailed declaration of its nuclear programs — a condition for providing the aid.
Hill said the North was considering Chinese proposals on ways to break the deadlock, Japan's Kyodo News agency reported.
"They're looking at the ideas and haven't decided what they want to do," the agency quoted Hill as saying Saturday. "We thought they might be ready to discuss it with us, and clearly they were not."
The hasty and low-profile visit was unusual for Hill, who often speaks freely to the media.
Hill met with Chinese officials last week during a visit to Beijing by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who said the six governments involved in the talks were looking at how to better synchronize the disarmament process.
Hill left the Chinese capital Thursday and returned Saturday. He was scheduled to travel to Vietnam next.
Meanwhile, North Korean and Chinese media reported that the North's leader Kim Jong Il visited the Chinese Embassy in Pyongyang on Saturday.
Kim visited at the request of Chinese Ambassador Liu Xiaoming and the Chinese envoy "conveyed the regards" of Chinese President Hu Jintao, the North's Korean Central News Agency reported. It said the two had "a cordial and friendly talk."
China's official Xinhua News Agency said the visit was the second since last year "to highlight friendship between the two neighboring countries."
Kim "expressed sympathy" for those affected by winter storms in China's south last month. Xinhua called it the worst snow disaster in 50 years.
The North Korean leader also wished China success with the Aug. 8-24 Beijing Olympics and visited a photo exhibition to commemorate the 110th birthday of the former Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai.
