N Korea-U.S. talks downplayed

HANOI, Vietnam (Reuters) -- United States Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly downplayed on Thursday speculation he would open a dialogue with North Korean officials on the sidelines of a regional meeting in Vietnam this week.

He also said he would not try to sell Washington's controversial national missile defence plan to representatives of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

"We have no agenda with any of the countries here," Kelly said before the start of a preliminary meeting to set the agenda for the annual ASEAN Regional Forum to be held in Hanoi in July.

Kelly sat across the table from North Korean delegation leader Ri Yong Ho at a welcoming banquet on Wednesday night, but said he "didn't have a chance" to speak to him.

Speculation of U.S. President George W. Bush's administration re-establishing contact with North Korea was touched off last Friday, when a foreign ministry official in Seoul said North and South Korea might hold talks with the United States in Hanoi.

However, Kelly said on Thursday his only mission is to participate in the meeting. After a series of groundbreaking talks last year, relations between Washington and Pyongyang have cooled considerably since the Bush administration took office in January.

Although last week the United States endorsed South Korea's "sunshine policy" of engagement with its Stalinist neighbor to the north, no U.S. officials have met with North Koreans this year.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Monday engagement with North Korea is important, but Washington would wait until "the appropriate time."

The main issues on the agenda for the ASEAN meetings in Hanoi this week were defence and security.

Kelly, fresh from a bruising trip to Beijing trying to soften China's opposition to the planned U.S. national missile defence program, said he "won't even try" to bring up the issue at the meeting.

But he added that he would be willing to explain the program to any delegates who raised it in the closed-door meetings, which are to continue until Saturday.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

In addition, 13 other countries -- among them the United States, Russia, China, Japan, and North and South Korea -- have delegations attending the Hanoi meetings.