,
China is preparing for a potentially crucial week of diplomacy in trying to resolve the North Korean nuclear stand-off, with envoys from the United States, Japan and possibly Pyongyang to meet in Beijing.
Seoul's top negotiator on the issue also arrived in Beijing on Monday as the main players in the six-nation forum aimed at disarming North Korea look to set a date for resuming full-fledged talks.
However, it looked unlikely that the envoys would all meet together here, according to officials from some of the nations involved and press reports.
US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, who has said Washington would like the full six-party talks to resume in mid-December, was due to arrive Monday afternoon.
Hill was to meet with China's chief negotiator to talks, Wu Dawei, as he did during a brief visit last week, a US embassy spokesperson said.
The spokesperson could not confirm South Korean and Japanese media reports that Hill also would meet with North Korea's envoy to the talks, vice foreign minister Kim Kye-Gwan, while in China.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency had reported that Kim was planning to visit Beijing on Tuesday.
South Korean envoy Chun Yung-Woo said he would meet with Wu to help set a new date for full talks, Yonhap reported.
“A date will be set when there is a prospect of progress” in the negotiations, it quoted Chun as saying.
Japan's top negotiator, Kenichiro Sasae, arrived in Beijing on Sunday and planned to meet separately with Wu and Chinese foreign ministry officials, said a Japanese embassy official who asked not to be named.
The six-nation talks, which also include Russia, were launched in 2003 to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions, but broke down a year ago when Pyongyang walked out in protest at US financial sanctions against it.
Resumption of the talks took on a new urgency after the North staged its first nuclear test on October 9, sparking international condemnation and UN sanctions.
Pyongyang agreed on October 31 to return to the negotiating table after a day of secret meetings in Beijing between the chief six-party envoys from the United States, North Korea and China.
However, the parties have since been unable to announce a start date, with Hill insisting that preparations have to be made first to ensure the talks make substantive progress when they resume.
It was not known whether Russia's envoy on the issue planned to visit Beijing this week.
China, which remains the North Korea's closest ally despite its unhappiness over Kim Jong-Il's regime continuing to pursue its nuclear program, has always hosted the six-party talks.
