SEOUL, Feb 22, 2010 (AFP) - South Korea's nuclear envoy will visit Beijing this week for talks with Chinese officials about bringing North Korea back to six-party disarmament talks, the foreign ministry in Seoul said on Monday.
Wi Sung-Lac will stay in Beijing Tuesday and Wednesday to meet Chinese officials who held talks with their North Korean counterparts two weeks ago.
The Chinese will brief Wi on the meetings, a ministry spokesman told AFP, and they will also discuss ways to bring Pyongyang back to the six-party forum, which it quit last April.
China, host of the stalled nuclear talks, has tried to persuade its close ally the North to return to the table.
Pyongyang, which tested atomic weapons in October 2006 and May 2009, has set two conditions for resuming the nuclear dialogue -- the lifting of UN sanctions and a US commitment to discuss a formal peace treaty.
The 1950-53 war ended only in an armistice.
Washington, Seoul and Tokyo say the North must return unconditionally and show commitment to scrapping its nuclear programme before other issues are dealt with.
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