YONHAP NEWS

Bosworth to stay in Pyongyang for a day and half: State Dept.

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 (Yonhap) -- The U.S. point man on North Korea will stay in Pyongyang for one and a half days early next month to attempt to lure the reluctant North back to the six-party talks on ending its nuclear weapons programs, State Department officials said Thursday.

   Stephen Bosworth, special representative for North Korea policy, will lead a delegation of four or five inter-agency officials, including Sung Kim, U.S. special envoy for the six-party talks, the officials said, asking anonymity.

   President Barack Obama said in Seoul earlier in the day that he will send Bosworth to Pyongyang on Dec. 8, calling for the North to return to the multilateral talks on its denuclearization.

   In a joint news conference with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, Obama offered Pyongyang "the reduction of sanctions and its increasing integration into the international community, something that will be good for its people ... if North Korea is taking serious steps around the nuclear issue."

   But he added, "We will not be distracted by a whole host of other side items that end up generating a lot of meetings but not concrete action."

   State Department spokesman Ian Kelly echoed the president's statement.

   "Our goal here is, of course, the resumption of the six-party talks and to secure North Korea's reaffirmation of the September 2005 joint agreement," Kelly said. "We are not interested in being distracted by issues beyond the issues -- the most important issues facing the region in terms of security. And that's the complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. So that will be the focus of Ambassador Bosworth's trip to Pyongyang."

   The spokesman also said that Bosworth "plans to continue on after Pyongyang to the capitals of our partners in the six-party talks to give them a readout of his talks with North Korean officials." The other parties of the six-party talks are South Korea, China, Japan and Russia.

   North Korean leader Kim Jong-il last month expressed his willingness to return to the six-party talks pending the outcome of the bilateral talks with the U.S. after months of provocations, including threats of nuclear war to cope with what it calls a U.S. hostile attitude.

   While in Beijing Tuesday on his weeklong Asian tour, Obama "expressed appreciation for Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to Pyongyang in which he came back with a statement from Kim Jong-il saying that North Korea was prepared to move towards six-party talks under certain conditions," U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman said.

   Kim's remarks on a possible return to the six-party talks were made when he met with Wen in Pyongyang early last month.

   The Chinese premier offered hefty economic aid, including construction of a bridge over the Aprok River linking the two communist neighbors, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral ties.

   hdh@yna.co.kr
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