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A U.S. Embassy vehicle on Tuesday entered the North Korean Embassy here where the chief nuclear negotiators of the countries continued a bilateral meeting that started earlier in the day at the U.S. Embassy.

Christopher Hill's visit to the North Korean embassy came shortly after his talks with his North Korean counterpart Kim Kye-gwan at a Beijing restaurant, an official at the U.S. Embassy here confirmed.

The Hill-Kim meeting, the first of its kind since the two met in Pyongyang during Hill's surprise two-day visit there late last month, started at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing where the two had "brief" discussions before going to lunch, according to the chief U.S. nuclear envoy.

"We didn't have much of a discussion at lunch," Hill told reporters shortly after the lunch, adding he and Kim will continue the bilateral talks that came one day after International Atomic Energy Agency monitors in the North confirmed the shutdown of the North's plutonium-producing facilities at Yongbyon.

"I think we are going to finish our discussion because we didn't have much of a discussion at lunch. There's some other things we want to talk about," Hill said earlier.

The chief North Korean negotiator refused to discuss what he and his U.S. counterpart talked about, only saying, "We just had a meal together."

The senior U.S. diplomat said the lunch meeting was very "business-like," but that he and Kim "reviewed a lot of things."

Both Hill and Kim arrived here earlier Tuesday, one day before the nuclear talks, also involving South Korea, Japan, Russia and host China, resume here.

North Korea announced Saturday that it has suspended operations of its key nuclear facilities at Yongbyon, the first part of a February agreement in which it agreed to disable the Yongbyon facilities.

"I've said many times we're way behind because we moved slowly through the spring, but I hope we can catch up a little. I think the way to do that is have these consultations so that when we actually get to the six-party process, we can move quickly," Hill said Monday in Seoul about the scheduled talks with his North Korean counterpart.

The U.S. envoy welcomed the North's announcement earlier this week, calling it a "good first step."

But he added he certainly has "to anticipate there will be problems in the future because I never expected it would take until July to get this first step done, but better late than never."

In the February agreement, North Korea has to completely disable the Yongbyon facilities and declare all of its nuclear programs in exchange for 950,000 tons of heavy fuel oil or equivalent aid, in addition to 50,000 tons of heavy oil being shipped to the North for the shutdown of the complex.

The nuclear dispute erupted in late 2002 when the U.S. accused the North of running a secret weapons program based on highly enriched uranium in addition to the country's well-known plutonium-based weapons program, an accusation denied by the North.

Hill said the uranium issue will be one of the main topics in future negotiations with North Korea, saying, "We cannot leave this issue ambiguous."

"Basically, I am going to be very much guided by the need to have success in this area, that is to have resolution in this area," he told reporters in Seoul on Monday, adding, "We need to get to the bottom of it."
BEIJING, July 17 (Yonhap News)