BEIJING, March 7 (UPI) -- U.S. and North Korean envoys met in Beijing Wednesday to discuss food aid amid delicate diplomacy over how to resume denuclearization talks, officials said.
Meanwhile, South Korea's lead nuclear envoy, Lim Sung-nam, left Seoul for New York to attend a security conference at Syracuse University, an event North Korea's top nuclear envoy Ri Young Ho was scheduled to attend, spurring discussions that Lim and Ri could meet to discuss denuclearization and other inter-Korean matters, The Korea Times reported.
The events came after last week's announcement of a U.S.-North Korea agreement in which North Korea agreed to a U.N.-monitored shutdown of its uranium enrichment program in Yongbyon in exchange for food aid and other considerations.
Officials said the accord provides impetus for an eventual resumption of six-party talks on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Participants include the Koreas, Japan, Russia, China and the United States. North Korea walked away from talks in 2009 after being hit with sanctions for its nuclear tests.
Robert King, the U.S. diplomat on human rights in North Korea, said in Beijing he and the North Korean envoy will discuss how the 240,000 tons of assistance would be distributed, reports indicated. There had been fears the aid would be diverted to the military and not reach vulnerable groups such as children.
