New bid to jump-start NK talks
From CNN State Department Producer Elise Labott
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Satellite image of the Yongbyon nuclear facility in North Korea.
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A top Chinese official has said she had "useful" meetings with administration officials on the prospect of re-starting six-party talks on North Korea.
Fu Ying, China's Director General for Asian Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told reporters in Washington Tuesday that some progress had been made, but that no date for a fresh round of talks aimed at getting North Korea to end its nuclear program had been set.
China hoped to resume talks "as soon as possible," Fu said.
"We look forward to fruitful discussions at the next round of six-party talks in the spirit of mutual respect and consultations on equal footing," she said.
Fu met with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Assistant Secretary James Kelley, as well as officials of the National Security Council and Defense Department.
She said she also briefed U.S. officials about a trip last month to North Korea by a top Chinese diplomat.
In her meeting with Kelley, Fu said she discussed recent proposals made by North Korea for six-party talks between the U.S., China, South Korea, Japan, Russia and North Korea.
The "proposals can be further discussed during the coming six-party talks," she said.
But Tuesday, a senior State Department official downplayed expectations of a breakthrough following Fu's visit.
"I don't sense a breakthrough ready to be announced," this official said. "I don't think she's here bringing a message from the North Koreans that we are ready to go."
Fu's meetings come just after two unofficial delegations traveled to North Korea and visited the Yongbyon nuclear facility.
Although the United States has received a preliminary read-out, the administration has yet to be fully briefed by the delegations.
The United States suspects the Yongbyon reactor, which was reactivated more than a year ago, is being used for nuclear weapons production, although North Korea says that reactor is being used to generate electricity.
The visit was the first since North Korea restarted the Yongbyon reactor and others and expelled U.N. inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency in late 2002.
Claims not verified
Pyongyang claims to have reprocessed 8,000 fuel rods from the Yongbyon nuclear reactor -- fuel that could be used in nuclear weapons.
U.S. officials have estimated that plutonium obtained from the rods could be used to build between six and 12 nuclear warheads, but have been unable to verify Pyongyang's claims.
The United States has been trying to revive the six-party talks, with the goal of those talks being a dismantlement of North Korea's program and a de-nuclearized Korean Peninsula.
North Korea has said it will dismantle its nuclear program only if Washington formally agrees not to attack the North, and resumes the humanitarian aid needed for North Korea's starving population.
Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell called Pyongyang's latest offer to dismantle its nuclear weapons program and nuclear power industry in exchange for fuel and power aid from the United States a "positive step."
