US envoys in Asia in bid for NKorea nuclear declaration

SEOUL (AFP) — Two senior US State Department officials arrived Wednesday in South Korea as part of a new diplomatic effort to persuade North Korea to come clean on its nuclear weapons programmes.

The department's Korea office director Sung Kim, who travelled on the same plane as Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, is due Thursday to head by land to Pyongyang for his second trip in less than a month.

Negroponte is visiting South Korea and will go on to Japan and China for talks on the nuclear disarmament drive and other issues.

Kim, who made no comment to reporters, last visited the North some two weeks ago to discuss Pyongyang's long-promised nuclear declaration, and both sides reported progress.

Asked how Kim's visit would help the process, Negroponte told reporters: "This process of negotiation with respect to denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula continues, and this is ...