US and North Korea to open key talks

Senior US and North Korean envoys are due to begin key talks in NY aimed at normalizing relations between the two hostile countries.

This meeting is part of the deal reached last month with North Korea and 6 other nations wherein North Korea agreed to abandon some elements of its nuclear program. In return, the US State Department has said that this will end the US designation of North Korea as a terrorist state and may lead to the lifting of sanction on the poverty-stricken nation. Today's meeting will bring together Christopher Hill and Kim Kye-gwan, the countries' top nuclear negotiatiors. It is expected that the United States is seeking assurances that Pyongyang is going to follow through on the deal reached last month. North Korea is going to receive 50,000 tons of fuel oil in exchange for their shutting down the nuclear reactor at Yongbyon. Once the reactor is completely disabled, North Korea will receive another 950,000 tons of oil. While these talks are going on, John Negroponte, another senior US official, is in South Korea for talks that will likely center on how to enforce the deal made with North Korea. Following this, Mohammed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, is set to travel to North Korea to hold talks on monitoring the dismantled nuclear facilities.