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Christopher Hill (above) is due on Tuesday afternoon and will hold a dinner meeting with his counterpart Chun Yung-Woo. -- PHOTO: AP
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SEOUL - THE chief US negotiator will visit South Korea this week to discuss ways to restart stalled negotiations on North Korea's nuclear disarmament, officials said on Monday.
Both sides in the six-nation pact are expressing impatience at the delay caused by disagreements over a promised nuclear declaration from the North.
Pyongyang last week said it may slow down work to disable its atomic plants.
Christopher Hill is due on Tuesday afternoon and will hold a dinner meeting with his counterpart Chun Yung-Woo.
Mr Hill 'will have an opportunity to have consultations with South Korean officials on the North Korean nuclear issue, South Korea-US relations, and other matters of mutual concern,' said foreign ministry spokesman Moon Tae-Young.
On Wednesday, Mr Hill is scheduled to meet Vice-Foreign Minister Kwon Jong-Rak and Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Yong-Joon, according to Mr Moon.
He leaves on Thursday for Indonesia.
The communist North's relations with the South have also worsened in recent days, as it responds to a tougher line from the new conservative government in Seoul.
The six-nation talks group the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, China and Russia.
North Korea last year signed agreements under which it would disable its main atomic plants at Yongbyon and declare all its nuclear programmes and materials by the end of 2007.
The US-supervised disablement has been going ahead, and the North says it submitted the declaration last November.
However, the United States says it has not fully accounted for a suspected secret uranium enrichment programme and for allegations of nuclear proliferation to Syria.
After talks with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Washington last week, South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-Hwan told reporters that 'time and patience' are running out.
He also suggested that August was the deadline for action given the US domestic election schedule.
The North last Friday responded: 'If the US keeps insisting that what does not exist exists, and delays the settlement of the nuclear issue, it would have a serious impact on the disablement of nuclear facilities.'
'We make it clear we have no uranium enrichment programme, we have not extended any nuclear help to any country. We have never dreamed of such things.' -- AFP
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