Seoul: June 22,2007 (Friday) – The Unites States are happy over the performance of their envoy Christopher Hill who conducted Nuke talks with North Korean officials, which they described as a daring and constructive step.

Hill said he spoke with the North’s Foreign Minister, Pak Ui-Chun, and Kim Kye-Gwan, who is its chief envoy to six-party negotiations aimed at ending the state’s nuclear programme in return for aid and diplomatic gains.

"It’s (been) a very good discussion and on the way forward and the need to move forward," he said in remarks carried by China’s Xinhua news agency.

"I think we’re talking about trying to have a six-party meeting as soon as possible," Hill said in Pyongyang before heading to Seoul. His visit came ahead of the scheduled arrival next week of inspectors from the UN nuclear watchdog - the first time they will have been back since being kicked out in late 2002 - to discuss how to close down the North’s Yongbyon reactor.

Hill said the US was looking for a "comprehensive solution" to both the shutting down of the North’s nuclear facilities and normalisation of diplomatic ties between the two nations.

He did not specify a date to resume the six-nation forum, which groups the two Koreas, China, Russia, Japan, South Korea and the US.

After returning here he briefed his South Korean counterpart Chun Yung-Woo and other officials and was due to fly to Tokyo to inform the Japanese.

South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-Soon said the six-party process was "gathering momentum" with Hill’s visit to Pyongyang.

Song will travel next week to Washington for talks on the denuclearisation question with US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.

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