US diplomat Chris Hill arrived in Seoul today ahead of a visit to North Korea to try to save a disarmament-for-aid deal and prevent Pyongyang from rebuilding its ageing nuclear plant.
North Korea has threatened to restore its nuclear plant - frozen and being disabled under the deal - that makes bomb-grade plutonium, in anger at not being dropped from a US terrorism blacklist and by Washington's verification demands.
"Let's see if we can come up with measures that will allow us to verify their declaration," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Hill told reporters at Incheon airport near Seoul.
Mr Hill is set to travel by road to North Korea on Wednesday on a journey of about three hours that takes him across the heavily armed border. He did not say when he planned to return.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said last week that the North was expelling UN monitors from its Soviet-era nuclear plant and plans to start reactivating it in days, rolling back a disarmament-for-aid deal and putting pressure on Washington.
North Korea started to disable its Yongbyon plant last November as a part of the deal it reached with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States.
Experts have said most of the disablement steps that were aimed at taking about a year to reverse have been completed and North Korea, which tested a nuclear device in October 2006, cannot easily get back into the plutonium producing business.
The North has balked over US demands about verification, fearing it to be too intrusive. Washington countered by making clear it would only remove Pyongyang from its terrorism list of once the North agreed to a "robust" mechanism.
Reuters