2007年VOA标准英语-US Nuclear Envoy Makes Unannounced Visit to N.

By Kurt Achin
Seoul
21 June 2007

The senior U.S. diplomat¹ in charge of negotiating an end to North Korea's nuclear weapons programs is in the North Korean capital. The previously² unannounced visit comes just days before United Nations nuclear inspectors³ are expected in the North to plan the shutdown of the country's main reactor⁴. VOA's Kurt Achin reports from Seoul.

vice5 director of North Korean Foreign Ministry's U.S. Affairs Department at Pyongyang airport, 21 Jun 2007" hspace="2" src="/upimg/allimg/070629/0900340.jpg" width="210" vspace="2" border="0" />

Christopher Hill, left, shakes hands with Ri Gun, vice director of North Korean Foreign Ministry's U.S. Affairs Department at Pyongyang airport, 21 Jun 2007

Before departing Tokyo for Pyongyang Thursday, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said it was important to make up for lost time on the North Korean nuclear issue.

"We have to catch up on some of the timelines, because we really fell behind this spring, and I think we have to do everything we can do to accelerate the timelines," he said.

Hill is Washington's chief delegate to six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons programs. The talks also include Japan, China, Russia and South Korea.

Pyongyang agreed in February to shut down its main nuclear facility, a preliminary step toward full nuclear disarmament, by mid-April. But Pyongyang then delayed taking action for months because of a dispute over frozen North Korean funds.

The funds dispute was resolved early this week, and things began to move again. The North Koreans invited United Nations nuclear inspectors back to the country, and the inspectors are planning to visit the North next week to arrange the shutdown.

Hill, who has been on an Asian tour, arrived in the North Korean capital from Tokyo Thursday afternoon. Jeffrey Hill, a press attaché at the U.S. embassy in Tokyo, says the envoy⁶ will spend the night in Pyongyang, and depart North Korea on Friday.

"He's going to stop in both Seoul and Tokyo before returning to Washington," he said.

Tong Kim is a professor at Seoul's Kyungnam University. In his former job as a high-level interpreter for the U.S. State Department, Kim escorted then-Secretary of State

Madeleine Albright to North Korea in 2000. He also accompanied Hill's predecessor⁷, Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly, in 2002, the last time any high-level U.S. government official has been to the country.

Kim says he doubts Hill will get the chance to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Il on this trip, because it is too early in the diplomatic process. He also says Hill is not senior enough, and the North Korean leader would wait to meet Hill's boss, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

"I think Kim Jong Il will certainly meet with (Secretary of State) Rice if she comes over there, but not at this point-- because there's so much more Kim Jong Il will have to be sure of before really making the move," he said.

South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon on Thursday praised Hill's decision to visit the North Korean capital, and says the South can now "move fast" on its promise of 400 thousand tons of rice for the impoverished⁸ North. Seoul has been holding back on the shipment until the North carries out the shutdown as promised.

South Korean officials say both the shutdown, and the rice shipment, may be completed by next month.

1 diplomat   

n.外交官，外交家；能交际的人，圆滑的人

参考例句：

• The diplomat threw in a joke, and the tension was instantly relieved.那位外交官插进一个笑话，紧张的气氛顿时缓和下来。
• He served as a diplomat in Russia before the war.战前他在俄罗斯当外交官。

2 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

3 inspectors   

n.检查员( inspector的名词复数 )；（英国公共汽车或火车上的）查票员；（警察）巡官；检阅官

参考例句：

• They got into the school in the guise of inspectors. 他们假装成视察员进了学校。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Inspectors checked that there was adequate ventilation. 检查员已检查过，通风良好。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 reactor   

n.反应器；反应堆

参考例句：

• The atomic reactor generates enormous amounts of thermal energy.原子反应堆发出大量的热能。
• Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules.在反应堆里，大分子裂变为小分子。

5 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

6 envoy   

n.使节，使者，代表，公使

参考例句：

• Their envoy showed no sign of responding to our proposals.他们的代表对我方的提议毫无回应的迹象。
• The government has not yet appointed an envoy to the area.政府尚未向这一地区派过外交官。

7 predecessor   

n.前辈，前任

参考例句：

• It will share the fate of its predecessor.它将遭受与前者同样的命运。
• The new ambassador is more mature than his predecessor.新大使比他的前任更成熟一些。

8 impoverished   

adj.穷困的，无力的，用尽了的v.使（某人）贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 )；使（某物）贫瘠或恶化

参考例句：

• the impoverished areas of the city 这个城市的贫民区
• They were impoverished by a prolonged spell of unemployment. 他们因长期失业而一贫如洗。 来自《简明英汉词典》