North Korea back to nuke talks

2005-06-07 20:12

Washington - North Korea informed the United States it would return to six-party talks on its nuclear arms programme, but did not say when, the state department said on Tuesday.

Department spokesperson Sean McCormack said the assurance was given at a meeting on Monday in New York of US and North Korean officials requested by Pyongyang.

"The North Koreans said they would return to the six-party process, but they did not give a time certain when they would return," McCormack said.

His comments appeared somewhat at odds with the assessment of Monday's meeting given earlier by White House spokesperson Scott McClellan.

"North Korea presented their views on various issues, but they did not indicate to us in the meeting that they were yet ready to return to the six-party talks," McClellan told reporters.

Monday's meeting was a rare bilateral contact between the North Koreans and the United States, which has shunned direct contact other than the occasional use of the so-called "New York channel" via Pyongyang's UN mission.

US officials said Joseph DiTrani, US special envoy to the six-party negotiations, and Jim Foster, head of the state department's office of Korean affairs, met with Pyongyang's UN ambassador and his deputy.

- AFP