YONHAP NEWS

Progress made on 6-way talks resumption: State Dept.

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 (Yonhap) -- Progress has been made in informal talks between North Korea and the United States over resumption of nuclear talks, without an agreement on a formal dialogue in Pyongyang for a breakthrough, the State Department said Thursday.

   At issue is an invitation to Pyongyang extended to Stephen Bosworth, U.S. special representative for North Korea policy.

   "The U.S. has made no decision for Ambassador Bosworth to accept the invitation of North Korea to have bilateral talks," spokesman Ian Kelly said.

   Kelly, however, said, "That doesn't mean that there's no progress being made."

   The spokesman was discussing the outcome of the informal talks Sung Kim, special envoy for six-party talks, had with Ri Gun, director general of the North American affairs bureau of the North's foreign ministry, on the margins of the Northeast Asia Cooperative Dialogue (NEACD) Monday and Tuesday at the University of California, San Diego.

   Ri is also to attend another seminar in New York hosted by the National Committee on American Foreign Policy and the Korea Society Friday.

   Kim, however, has not yet made any decision on "whether or not he was going to go back up to New York," Kelly said.

   Kim met with Ri in New York last Friday to discuss a possible visit to Pyongyang by Bosworth for a breakthrough to restart the six-party talks, deadlocked over U.N. sanctions on North Korea for its nuclear and missile tests.

   North Korean leader Kim Jong-il extended the invitation to the U.S. point man on North Korea in August after months of provocations, and expressed his willingness to come back to the six-party talks when he met with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao earlier this month in Pyongyang.

   However, the North Korean leader said bilateral talks with the U.S. should precede any resumption of the multiparty forum.

   U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last week, "We are prepared to meet bilaterally with North Korea within the framework of the six-party talks," but added the U.S. will not lift sanctions on North Korea or normalize ties unless Pyongyang takes irreversible steps toward denuclearization.

   Daniel Glaser, deputy assistant secretary of the treasury for terrorist financing and financial crimes, also said Wednesday, "We will continue to implement international financial sanctions ... to advance the U.S. government's foreign policy goal for the complete, verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in an irreversible sense."

   Glaser, however, said that sanctions "are one component of our broader policy," and emphasized the need to "do major things to try to achieve our policy goals we set up" and consider "what combinations of our policy initiatives will ultimately achieve our success."

   hdh@yna.co.kr
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