U.S. says it held talks with North Korea(in NYC, the last call)

Yahoo - Reuters ^ | 05/19/05 | Masayuki Kitano

[TigerLikesRooster]

U.S. says it held talks with North Korea

50 minutes ago

TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. officials met North Korean officials in New York last week in the first such bilateral contact this year, a spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Tokyo said on Thursday.

The talks took place at a time of growing concern that North Korea may be preparing a nuclear test and as Washington faces increasing pressure from its own partners to open some form of dialogue with Pyongyang.

"We can confirm we had working-level contacts with North Korean officials on Friday, May 13, in New York," the embassy spokesman said.

"As before, the channel is used to convey messages about U.S. policy, not to negotiate. The last meeting in this channel was in December," the spokesman said.

Asked whether U.S. officials had face-to-face talks with North Korean officials in New York, the spokesman said: "Apparently that's what that means."

The U.S. embassy spokesman could not say who took part in the meeting.

But a Japanese daily, Asahi Shimbun, said on Thursday that Joseph DeTrani, the U.S. envoy to six-party talks on the nuclear crisis and another State Department official met Pak Gil Yon, North Korea's ambassador to the United Nations, and his deputy, Han Song-ryol, at Pyongyang's U.N. mission last Friday.

DeTrani urged North Korea to return to the six-way talks and abandon its nuclear programs in the meeting, the newspaper said, quoting sources close to the six-way talks.

DeTrani also said that the Bush administration recognizes North Korea's sovereignty and has no intent to attack or invade North Korea, the newspaper said.

He also explained a proposal presented by the United States at the six-way talks last June and stressed that North Korea could gain energy aid from neighboring countries if it promised to completely abandon its nuclear programs.

DeTrani added, however, that a comprehensive solution to issues such as North Korea's missile exports, human rights, as well as the smuggling of drugs and counterfeit bills were needed for a normalisation of U.S.-North Korea relations, the newspaper said.

The North Korean officials promised to convey the U.S. message to Pyongyang, Asahi said.

In a separate report, Kyodo news agency quoted sources familiar with U.S.-North Korean relations as saying North Korea was expected to respond in two weeks to U.S. proposals at the New York talks.

The New York channel, which only involves the United States and North Korea, has dealt with preparatory issues rather than negotiations. It has not been used since last December.

Actual six-party negotiations aimed at dismantling the North's nuclear capabilities were last held in June 2004.

Besides the United States and North Korea, other participants include China, South Korea, Russia and Japan.

(Additional reporting by Masayuki Kitano)

[TigerLikesRooster]

U.S. is covering all the basis. It is basically reiterating the previous proposals.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Ping!

[Jet Jaguar]

Thanks for the ping.

[Semper Paratus]

We drew a line in the kimchee.

[SevenofNine]

OH OH I think Chia Pet is in trouble ROFL

Hey Tiger you know what DVD version of Team America came out in America on Tuesday don't be suprise if you hear that movie make it black market in North Korea LOL!

[atrocitor]

Every day that goes by these N. Koreans are building more nuclear devices. Begging them to come back to 6-party talks instead of just 2-party talks just sounds like to me the start of another round of jerking us around for a few more years while they build more and more nukes. At some point they will have enough devices, and perfected long range missile capacity, that fighting them will result in armagedon-lite. These people need to be taken out now.