The US administration believes that the next round of the six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear problem settlement may be started right after annual meetings of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) that are to take place in Sydney in early September, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Christopher R. Hill who is the US chief negotiator at the six-sided talks told journalists at a special briefing, according to Itar-Tass. It was timed to coincide with the second meeting of the working group on normalization of relations between Washington and Pyongyang that is scheduled for September 1-2 in Geneva. Hill confirmed that he will take part in APEC events in Sydney. In the words of the diplomat, he plans talks with the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asia and Oceania department head Kenichiro Sasae and possibly with colleagues from Russia. In the view of Hill, it would be real to hold the next round of the six-sides talks on the Korean Peninsula denuclearization the week after the APEC meetings. However, the decision on this is to be made first of all by China that hosts the six-party talks, the US assistant secretary of state noted. The diplomat also highly assessed the results of a meeting of the working group for the mechanism of ensuring peace and security in Northeast Asia that was held in Moscow on August 20-21. It was a very good meeting, Hill stressed.
