"The US official Kim Sung will arrive in Beijing this afternoon and he will exchange views with the officials of the Chinese side on the six-party talks," foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told reporters Thursday.

A spokeswoman for the US embassy earlier told AFP the official would also meet North Korean officials, and was due to return to Washington on Saturday.

On July 12, Pyongyang agreed to completely disable its main weapons-grade plutonium-producing facilities by the end of October and allow thorough site inspections to verify a declaration it submitted on its nuclear activities.

The agreement was part of a landmark deal reached last year between China, Russia, the United States, Japan, and North and South Korea, under which the North agreed to abandon its nuclear programmes in exchange for aid.

The third and final stage of the deal, which has yet to be accomplished, calls for the North to permanently dismantle its atomic plants and hand over all nuclear material and weaponry.

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