(dpa) - Singapore welcomed on Saturday a meeting between US chief nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill and his North Korean counterpart in the city-state as part of negotiations to dismantle the communist country's atomic programme.
"Singapore hopes both sides will have a good discussion that will move the six-party talks forward, leading to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Hill, an assistant secretary of state, is due to arrive in Singapore late Monday from East Timor and depart for Beijing on Wednesday.
The talks with North Korea's Kim Kye Gwon regarding the stalled nuclear issue will be held on Tuesday, Tom Casey, a deputy spokesman for the US State Department, said Friday on the government agency's website.
Hill will talk to officials from Singapore's government on Monday.
Attempts by the US, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia to persuade North Korea to disarm have been deadlocked, with the United States unable to break the impasse during March negotiations in Geneva.
North Korea's declaration of its nuclear activities is three months overdue.
Casey described the Singapore talks as a follow-up to the ones in Geneva and said they will cover "both issues related to the declaration itself as well as the implementation of the disablement phase of talks."
More than a year ago, North Korea agreed to give up its nuclear programme in exchange for aid and other benefits from other participants in the six-party talks.