By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: January 29, 2008 Filed at 4:59 a.m. ET
INCHEON, South Korea (AP) -- The State Department's top Korea expert said he'll press North Korea to quickly provide a full accounting of its weapons programs as he launched a mission Tuesday to advance a stalled nuclear disarmament deal.
The North pledged to give the declaration by the end of last year and insists it has already done so, but Washington says it has not received a comprehensive list -- a dispute that has mired the arms talks that began in 2003 in their latest deadlock.
The State Department's Sung Kim said Tuesday he would urge the North to deliver the atomic weapons list ''as quick as possible.''
''The requirement is for a complete and correct declaration,'' he said after arriving at Incheon International Airport outside the South Korean capital, Seoul, for meetings with South Korean officials.
Kim will stop Wednesday in China before heading Thursday to North Korea for a visit expected to last up to three days.
''We'll try to make progress on the six-party talks,'' he said, referring to the arms negotiations that include China, Japan, Russia, the U.S. and the two Koreas.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday in Washington she hopes the North is ''ready to have serious discussions'' about its declaration, adding its completion is ''necessary in order for further progress to be made on all of the obligations.''
The North began complying with a promise last year to disable its main plutonium-producing facility, but missed its Dec. 31 deadline because of technical reasons.
The U.S., which once branded North Korea as part of an ''axis of evil,'' has shown unusual patience with the communist country after Washington reversed its hard-line stance following Pyongyang's October 2006 nuclear test.
Amid attempts to revive the talks, Chinese Communist Party envoy Wang Jiarui departed Tuesday for the North, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
''We hope the parties can remain patient and continue to work hard to implement the relevant agreements,'' Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a regularly scheduled briefing.
