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SEOUL, S KOREA - US NEGOTIATOR Christopher Hill arrived in North Korea on Wednesday in an attempt to save a crumbling nuclear disarmament deal, after saying negotiations with Pyongyang have reached a 'very tough' phase.
The assistant secretary of state crossed the heavily fortified border at the truce village of Panmunjom, the US military said, in what is his third visit to the hardline communist state in 16 months.
Mr Hill is to urge the North to halt moves to restart its nuclear weapons programme and to return to a February 2007 six-nation deal which appears close to collapse.
'I would say we are in a difficult and very tough phase of negotiations,' he told reporters late on Tuesday after talks with his South Korean counterpart Kim Sook.
The North, angry at the US failure to remove it from a terrorism blacklist, has announced it will begin restarting its plutonium reprocessing plant at Yongbyon.
It has also barred UN atomic inspectors from the building
In a further sign of Pyongyang's defiance, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported on Wednesday that there are indications the North has started to restore the site where it conducted its first-ever nuclear test blast in October 2006.
'Yonhap cited an unidentified government official as saying smoke has been seen rising from the Punggyeri site in the country's north-east, and that North Korean authorities may have been incinerating clothes and equipment used in restoration efforts at the site.
South Korea's Defense Ministry said it could not confirm the report.. -- AFP
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