North Korea/US -Talks

US ready for talks with Pyongyang over nuclear weapons

Article published on the 2009-09-12 Latest update 2009-09-12 11:05 TU

The nuclear site Yongbyon in North Korea
(Photo : AFP)

A high-ranking US official said that the US is prepared to hold direct bilateral talks with North Korea. The talks, said the US Assistant Secretary of State Philip Crowley, will hopefully take place within the context of the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear disarmament process.

The US government is maintaining the condition that talks with North Korea depend on Pyongyang agreeing to return to a nuclear deal it quit in April.

"We had consultations with our partners in the six-party process," Assistant Secretary of State Philip Crowley told reporters on Friday.

"We are prepared to enter into a bilateral discussion with North Korea, but it's a bilateral discussion that (is) hopefully... within the six-party context, and it's designed to convince North Korea to come back to the six-party process and to take affirmative steps towards denuclearization," he said.

Crowley suggested this was a tactical shift rather than a U-turn in US policy towards North Korea when he called it a "short-term" measure to bring the Pyongyang back to talks.

Stephen Bosworth, the US special envoy for North Korea in and his deputy Sung Kim met his counterparts from China, South Korea and Japan during a tour of Asia in the last week. Kim stayed on in Asia to consult with his Russian counterpart.

North Korea quit the six-way talks grouping in April in protest at United Nations censure of a rocket launch. The UN Security Council then tightened sanctions on North Korea after it staged an underground nuclear weapons test in May.

The United States has long said that any bilateral talks would come only within the framework of six-party talks, which also include China, Japan, Russia and South Korea.