N. Korea ready for U.S. talks

Kim Jong-il and Ivanov in Pyongyang, where the Russian foreign minister said his country was in a good position to help reconciliation on the Korean peninsula

SEOUL, South Korea and WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Icy relations between North Korea and the United States look to be thawing with Pyongyang saying it is ready for talks with Washington.

The message came from Russia's Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov on Monday after meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

Ivanov says North Korea also plans to hold talks with Japan, despite the lack of diplomatic ties. Officials from the North could meet with U.S. and Japanese officials on the fringes of the ASEAN summit in Brunei this week, he added.

The positive signals came after U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell signaled last week a willingness to meet with North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun on the sidelines of the ASEAN forum.

"I'm not ruling anything in or out. It's an open question," Powell said.

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U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said Monday, however, that no decision had been made regarding meetings with the North Koreans in Brunei, or elsewhere.

But White House National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack did reiterate that Washington is ready for serious, comprehensive talks if Pyongyang is too.

"As the president has said before, we are prepared for serious and comprehensive talks if Pyongyang is also prepared."

At last year's ASEAN regional forum meeting in Vietnam, North Korea sent a lower-level diplomat. Powell shocked the diplomat when he approached him, shook his hand, and told him the United States was ready to resume discussions at anytime, any place, with no limitation on subjects, State Department officials have said.

In June, the United States proposed sending James Kelley, the assistant secretary of state for Near East Asia, to Pyongyang -- but a naval clash between North and South Korea soon afterwards forced the United States to withdraw its offer.

Five South Korean sailors were killed and 19 others injured on June 29 when a North Korean patrol boat fired upon a South Korean boat in the Yellow Sea.

The naval skirmish has further frayed ties between the neighbors on the Korean peninsula

In a surprise move, North Korea suddenly issued an apology to the South over the Yellow Sea incident. (Full story)

Kim Ryong Song, the North Korea official responsible for negotiations with South Korea, also called for resuming cabinet-level talks in an attempt to move toward reconciling the two Koreas more than 50 years after the Korean war ended in an armistice.

Peace overtures

In October 2000, then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright became the highest-ranking American official to travel to Pyongyang since the Korean war ended in 1953.

During her visit, Albright met with reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jung-Il who, U.S. officials say, signaled he was ready to discuss freezing North Korean missile exports, production and testing in exchange for resuming diplomatic relations between the two sides, among other things.

Seoul and Pyongyang remain technically at war because they never signed a peace treaty after their 1950-53 war, which killed millions on each side.

The announcement is a boost for South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, who is a key proponent of engaging with the North, and has pursued his so-called "Sunshine Policy."

A landmark summit in June 2000 between the two Korean leaders led to a flurry of projects, including restoring railroad links and family exchanges.

But Pyongyang called off planned economic talks early in May, partly because of tension with the United States.

The United States this year dented ties with North Korea, after President George W. Bush called the isolationist state part of an "axis of evil" along with Iran and Iraq.