US, NKorean nuclear envoys engage in 'dining diplomacy'

US, NKorean nuclear envoys engage in 'dining diplomacy'
AFP
Published: Tuesday July 17, 2007

The chief US and North Korean nuclear envoys engaged in a round of "dining diplomacy" on Tuesday ahead of planned six-nation talks aimed at scrapping Pyongyang's weapons programme.
After flying into the Chinese capital, US negotiator Christopher Hill and the North's Kim Kye-Gwan met briefly at the US embassy, then ate lunch together at a Chinese restaurant, apparently talking little about atomic issues.
"We discussed this or that about life," a smiling Kim told reporters as he left the upscale restaurant in Beijing's business district that features spicy cuisine from southwest China's Sichuan province.
Hill said: "We didn't really have much of a discussion at lunch. The atmosphere was very business like."
Reporters saw Hill enter the North Korean embassy after lunch, however the US embassy refused to confirm he went there or held further talks with Kim.
The meetings were the first between the pair since North Korea closed its Yongbyon nuclear reactor on Saturday, the first step it was required to take under a six-nation disarmament accord brokered in February.
The fresh round of six-nation talks are due to start on Wednesday and last for two days.
Hill and Kim have engaged in "dining diplomacy" in the past. In February they ate at a luxury Italian restaurant on the sidelines of the Beijing talks that resulted in the disarmament accord.
Before North Korea conducted an atomic test in October last year, US President George W. Bush's administration had been opposed to holding any bilateral meetings between officials from the two countries.
However, Washington has since been prepared to engage the North Koreans, and Hill last month visited Pyongyang where he met with Kim.