YONHAP NEWS

U.S. mulls letting N. Korean official in U.S. for seminar: State Dept.

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Oct. 9 (Yonhap) -- The United States said Friday it has not yet made a decision on whether to approve a visit to the U.S. later this month by a North Korean official for a security forum.

   "We are aware that nongovernmental organizations have invited Ambassador Ri Gun to participate in meetings in the U.S," Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs Philip Crowley said. "We have not yet made a decision whether to approve that travel."

   The Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue (NEACD) has extended an invitation to Ri, director general of the North American affairs bureau of North Korea's Foreign Ministry, for an annual meeting, Crowley said. Reports said the meeting will be held in San Diego Oct. 26-27.

   There are precedents for such travel.

   Ri visited New York last November to attend an academic seminar soon after the election of Barack Obama as U.S. president, and met with U.S. officials and key policy advisers to Obama.

   Jung Tae-yang, vice director general of the American bureau of the North Korean Foreign Ministry, attended last year's session in Beijing of the NEACD, organized by the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation at the University of California, San Diego, to bring together academics as well as government officials of the two Koreas, U.S., China, Russia and Japan, members of the six-way talks on ending North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

   Alexander A. Arvizu, then-deputy assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, attended the Beijing session last year.

   Meanwhile, international sanctions on North Korea are working and "North Korea is feeling the pressure as a result," Crowley said.

   The spokesman, however, fell short of predicting Pyongyang will return to the six-party talks.

   "Now will that pressure be enough to convince them to come back to the six-party process and to reaffirm the commitments they have made to move towards denuclearization? You know, that's something that we can't judge at this point," he said.

   U.S. officials have said they are considering sending Stephen Bosworth, special representative for North Korea policy, to Pyongyang to woo the North back to the six-party talks, which Pyongyang has boycotted, citing U.N. sanctions for its nuclear and missile tests earlier this year.

   Crowley said Thursday there wasn't a "particular timetable" for making a decision on Bosworth's trip to Pyongyang, but added, "Clearly the intent of any meeting that might take place in the coming weeks would be to test that proposition -- whether North Korea is in fact willing to come back to the six-party process, is willing to meet its obligations to follow on in the commitments it has already made -- that leads us towards a denuclearized Korean Peninsula."

   Rep. Hong Jung-wook of South Korea's ruling Grand National Party said Thursday bilateral talks between the U.S. and North Korea will take place within two weeks at the earliest "or a month at the latest," citing U.S. officials he said he recently met with.

   Hong said he expects the bilateral talks will be held at a working level.

   "Working level should not mean Stephen Bosworth, but his subordinate," he said, apparently referring to Sung Kim, special envoy for the six-party talks.

   hdh@yna.co.kr
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