YONHAP NEWS

S. Korea sees dim prospects for N. Korea-U.S. talks

SEOUL, Nov. 29 (Yonhap) -- The outlook for a rare direct dialogue between North Korea and the United States scheduled for next week is "dark," with the communist country showing no clear signs that it will rejoin the long-stalled disarmament talks on its nuclear program, a Seoul official said Sunday.

   U.S. special envoy on North Korea Stephen Bosworth is scheduled to fly to Pyongyang on Dec. 8 on a mission to persuade Pyongyang to return to the six-party nuclear disarmament forum it quit earlier this year. It will be the North's first one-on-one dialogue with the U.S. Barack Obama administration which took office in January.

   "We are seeing no signals from North Korea yet that it would return to the six-party talks," a South Korean foreign ministry official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity. "As for now, we see the prospects are dark."

   North Korean leader Kim Jong-il told visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in October that his country would rejoin the multilateral nuclear forum, depending on the outcome of its bilateral talks with the U.S. His remarks were widely seen as a hint that the North may opt to rejoin the stalled six-party forum. The other parties involved are South Korea, China, Japan and Russia.

   "Whether North Korea hinted at its return to the six-party talks has not been verified," the official said.

   As a precondition of its return to the nuclear negotiations, North Korea still insists on the establishment of a peace regime with the U.S., the official said. Pyongyang's media routinely calls for the U.S. to replace the Korean War armistice agreement with a peace treaty to be signed between it and the U.S.

   The foreign ministry official said that Bosworth will fly to North Korea by way of Seoul and stop over in Seoul on his way to Washington after the planned trip to the North.

   South Korean government sources said Bosworth will come to Seoul by a commercial flight but will use a military plane when he visits the North. About 28,000 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War.

   The official said chances are "not high" that Bosworth would carry a letter from Obama or meet with the North Korean leader during his Pyongyang visit.

   hkim@yna.co.kr
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