N. Korean official heads to US

A senior North Korean diplomat headed to the United States on Tuesday for rare talks with US officials, a diplomatic source in Seoul said, amid cautious hopes for the resumption of stalled six-party talks on ending the North's nuclear programs. Kim Kye-gwan, the North's first vice foreign minister and one of the key strategists in Pyongyang's nuclear talks with Washington, left Beijing on Tuesday morning and was due to arrive in New York for meetings with US diplomats, the source said on the condition of anonymity. Kim's visit to the US comes days after the nuclear envoys of South Korea and North Korea met on the sidelines of an Asian security conference in Bali last week and agreed to make joint efforts to swiftly resume the six-party talks, according to South Korea's (Yonhap) news agency. Cho Byung-jae, spokesman for South Korea''s Foreign Ministry, told reporters that Kim and US officials were "expected to discuss a wide range of issues on the North''s denuclearization process and US-North Korea relations."