Optimism deserts Hill as he touches down in Beijing

Chief U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill was not in an upbeat mood about the six-party talks when he stepped off the plane in the Chinese capital, saying he was "not hoping for anything".

"I'm not hoping for anything, but I will consult with the Chinese", Hill said at the airport on his arrival in Beijing Friday afternoon.

According to a source with the U.S. embassy in Beijing, Hill is expected to meet his DPRK counterpart Kim Kye-Gwan and top Chinese negotiator, Vice Foreign minister Wu Dawei, on Saturday.

The six-party talks, grouping China, the DPRK, the United States, the ROK, Japan and Russia, have been in recess since March 22 due to difficulties in resolving the issue concerning the transfer of the allegedly illicit funds of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) frozen in a Macao-based bank.

The United States said on April 6 that it supported the return of the allegedly illicit funds frozen in the Macao bank to the DPRK.

"We support the release of all the funds. It is now a matter of technical implementation," U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. "We believe that we have identified a way to do that."

The United States on March 19 agreed to transfer the 25 million U.S. dollars frozen in Macao-based Banco Delta Asia (BDA) to a DPRK account at the Bank of China in Beijing.

The DPRK, which agreed at the Six-Party Talks in February to shut down and seal the Yongbyon nuclear facility, insisted that unfreezing the funds was a prerequisite for starting other negotiations.

Source: Xinhua