A senior North Korean diplomat arrived in Beijing on Tuesday for talks with his Chinese counterpart, S.Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted a diplomatic source as saying. “Vice Foreign Minister Kim Hyong-jun is expected to discuss nuclear issues with Chinese officials,” the source said on the condition of anonymity. China has stepped up its efforts to reopen the six-party talks aimed at ending the North’s nuclear weapons program. The visit by North Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Kim Hyong-jun to China came a day after China’s chief nuclear envoy, Wu Dawei, made a rare trip to Washington for meetings with U.S. officials, including his counterpart Glyn Davies. On Monday, the U.S. State Department said in a statement that Wu “had a productive set of discussions on North Korea today with a range of U.S. officials.” “The United States and China agree on the fundamental importance of a denuclearized North Korea. Special Representative Wu’s visit is part of a series of high-level, in-depth U.S.-China discussions on how to achieve our shared goal of a denuclearized North Korea in a peaceful manner,” the statement said.