 U.S. special envoy on North Korea |
Staff Reporter
The United States and North Korea reached a common understanding on the need for the resumption of the tortuous six-party denuclearization talks, a U.S. special envoy said Thursday.
But Stephen Bosworth, U.S. representative for North Korea policy, said it will take time to see when and how the North returns to the six-party forum.
"We identified some common understanding on the role of the six-party talks and the importance of the implementation of the 2005 Joint Statement," he told reporters after returning to Seoul from a three-day trip to Pyongyang.
The envoy's talks in North Korea were the first high-level contact between Washington and Pyongyang since President Barack Obama took office in January.
Bosworth said in Pyongyang, he met with First Vice Foreign Minister Kang Sok-ju and top nuclear envoy Kim Kye-gwan.
He said he did not ask for a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
"I believe that this visit and my conversations in Pyongyang were very useful," Bosworth said. "We were able to exchange views in a candid and business-like fashion."
When asked about any letter from President Obama, he said, "In fact, I am the message."
"I communicated President Obama's view that the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is the fundamental undertaking of the six-party talks, if resumed," he said.
As President Obama has made clear, he continued, the United States is ready to work with its allies and partners in the region to offer North Korea a different future.
He urged North Korea to "choose the door for dialogue and the six-party talks and take irreversible steps for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."
Bosworth said, however, it remains to be seen when and how Pyongyang will return to the talks.
Further consultations have yet to be determined, he added.
Prof. Yang Moo-jin at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul said the United States appeared to be satisfied with the meeting results.
"Bosworth said they were exploratory talks, not negotiations, and the two sides reached a common understanding on the resumption," he told The Korea Times. "So, I think the United States would feel satisfied with the results."
When to resume the six-way meeting is now up to other member states, especially South Korea and Japan, he added.
Bosworth will travel to China, Friday; Japan, Saturday; and Russia, Sunday to brief them on his North Korea trip, before returning home Tuesday.
In the 2005 statement adopted at the fourth round of the six-way talks, the North promised to abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs and return to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
ksy@koreatimes.co.kr
