U.S. envoy requests visit to North Korea

SEOUL, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- Plans are under discussion for Christopher Hill, U.S. envoy to the six-party talks on North Korea, to visit Pyongyang, a South Korean official says.

The official said the trip was in the "formulation stage" and Washington had not yet discussed the details with Seoul, the South Korean Joong Ang Daily reported Friday.

Another official said that Hill had mentioned his interest in visiting Pyongyang to Unification Minister Chung Dong-young when he stopped in Seoul nearly two weeks ago, on his way to Beijing for the talks that concluded Monday.

Chung was in Pyongyang for North-South Korea talks while the six-party talks were going on in Beijing.

The prospects for such a visit are unclear after North Korea shifted its position following Monday's agreement between the two Koreas, the United States, China, Russia and Japan, demanding a light water reactor before it will abandon its nuclear weapons.

"We would rather see this visit go through," a South Korean official said. "It's good to have more bilateral contact between these two countries."

Hill's visit would be the first by a senior U.S. official to North Korea since former U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright went there in October 2000.