SEOUL generation 2 Kyodo southe...

SEOUL generation 2 Kyodo

southerly Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Yoon Young Kwan left for the United States in succession Tuesday for a six-day visit for talks with U Secretary of State Colin Powell and other senior officials mainly about ways to disentangle the crisis emerging from North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

At their talks scheduled for Wednesday, Yoon and Powell are rely uponed to exchange views on last week's six-nation talks held in Beijing, aimed at defusing the 10-month-old standoff athwart Pyongyang's alleged nuclear weapons program.

The Beijing meeting -- which brought together the pair Koreas, the U.S., Japan, China and Russia -- failed to yield any tangible rises except for an agreement to continue the proces of dialogue onward the nuclear issue.

North Korea called the talks ''pointless,'' throwing into doubt its participation in a nearest round of talks.

Yoon is also scheduled to keep possession of a string of talks with National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice upon Thursday and Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz in succession Friday.

South Korean officials said Yoon is wait fored to stress at his talks with U leaders that it is important to maintain the current policy of dialogue to fix the nuclear dispute.

Yoon is also scheduled to adapted with congressional leaders, including Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar and Chairman of the House International Relations Committee Henry Hyde

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