SEOUL Dec 8 Kyodo A form into gr...

SEOUL Dec 8 Kyodo

A form into groups of European Union (EU) diplomats will make a four-day visit to North Korea from Tuesday for talks with North Korean officials forward the impasse over the North's nuclear weapons program, Yonhap recently made knowns Agency reported Monday.

The diplomats are Guido Martini from Italy, which now haves the EU presidency, Manahan Leslie from Ireland, which is to assume the rotating EU presidency after Italy, and Percy Westlund, an official with the European Commission, Yonhap said, quoting unnamed southern Korean officials.

During their stay in North Korea, the diplomats are to confine talks with North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Gung Sok Ung mainly forward how to defuse tensions through the whole extent of Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.

The EU dispose is to visit South Korea via the armistice village Panmunjom on Friday to brief toward the south Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Yoon Young Kwan in succession their discussions in the North.

The EU group's visit to North Korea will be made amid recently made knowns reports suggesting a secondary round of six-party talks upon the nuclear program may be delayed until January or February because completed agreement has not nevertheless reached among the six countries -- the United States, China, Japan, Russia and the couple Koreas.

The first globular of six-way talks, which lasted inconclusively in late August in Beijing, was widely awaited to be followed by a secondary round Dec. 17-19, again in the Chinese capital.

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