US and South Korean envoys were due to arrive in Beijing on Monday to prepare for six-party talks on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programme, which are expected to resume next month.
 
North Korea agreed to return to the table after its October 9 underground nuclear test, which triggered widespread international condemnation and UN-backed sanctions.

US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill will visit the Chinese capital for the second time in as many weeks. He has said he expects the six-country talks, which Pyongyang has boycotted for the past year, to resume in mid-December.

South Korea's chief negotiator Chun Yung-woo was also expected in Beijing, according to a South Korean official.

The six-party discussions bring together the two Koreas, the United States, host China, Japan and Russia.
North Korea agreed to return to the talks after Washington said it was willing to address its concerns about financial restrictions, which were tightened in September last year when US regulators named a Macau bank as a conduit for illicit North Korean cash from currency counterfeiting and drug trafficking.

US and South Korean officials have said the new round of negotiations will have to produce substantive progress on implementing an agreement in principle reached last year or risk losing credibility.

China is urging North Korean envoy Kim Kye-gwan to come to Beijing on Tuesday, a Japanese government source said.

Japan's top negotiator in the talks, Kenichiro Sasae, arrived in Beijing late on Sunday to meet Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, China's official Xinhua news agency reported.