U.S.: N. Korea willing to resume talks
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- North Korea has told the United States it is willing to return to the six-party talks on its nuclear program, but has not said when, a State Department spokesman said Tuesday, although China's ambassador to the United Nations said the meetings could resume within "the next couple of weeks."
In a Monday meeting with U.S. officials in New York, "the North Koreans said they would return to the six-party process, but did not give us a time," department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.
China's Ambassador to the United Nations, Wang Guangya, said the talks should be held "the sooner the better."
"It will imply the next couple of weeks," he said.
He added the talks would likely be held in Beijing.
"So far, no other venue has been proposed," he told reporters.
Pressed as to whether the talks would occur during the northern summer, the ambassador said, "I think so."
South Korea and Japan have responded cautiously so far, noting there is no firm date yet. Russia is the other participant in the six-party talks.
Monday's meeting, which North Korea had requested, took place at the North Korean mission to the United Nations.
U.S. lead envoy to North Korea, Joseph DeTrani, and Jim Foster, the director of the State Department's Korea Office, attended the meeting with North Korean Ambassador to the United Nations, Pak Gil Yon, and his deputy, Han Song Ryul, the spokesman said.
"This provides the North Koreans, we think, a basic choice, a pathway forward, in which they would be able to potentially realize the respect that they have asked for and to get the assistance that they potentially need," McCormack said.
He added, "The ball is in North Korea's court to provide the time they will return to the table and to actually return to the table to engage in a constructive manner."
McCormack made his comments moments after White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters that North Korea had "expressed their commitment to the six-party talks," but did not say when, or even if, it would return to negotiations.
Asked about the apparent discrepancy in accounts, McCormack said, "I don't see any difference between what Scott said this morning and this here."
The North Korean government withdrew in late 2002 from its nuclear agreements and restarted a nuclear reactor at Yongbyon, which had been shut since 1994. It also kicked out U.N. inspectors and monitors.
Although North Korea had agreed to talks with the United States, Russia, China, South Korea and Japan on the nuclear issue, it opted out of those talks last September, saying the United States has a "hostile" policy towards it.
In February, Pyongyang declared it had nuclear weapons and would continue boycotting the six-party talks indefinitely unless Washington were to agree to one-on-one talks.
The Bush administration has refused to do so, saying the issue affects the entire region and, therefore, other parties should be included as well.
It has been a year since the last round of six-way talks. In March, the United States threatened to take North Korea to the U.N. Security Council -- a move opposed by Pyongyang.
Over the weekend, a senior Defense Department official told CNN that the United States was close to deciding to bring the matter to the U.N. Security Council, but Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice later said that was not true.
U.S. chances of punishing North Korea with economic or political sanctions would not be great, in any event, since China, which opposes sanctions generally, could veto a U.S. motion.
The insular North Korean government, meanwhile, has denounced sanctions as tantamount to a declaration of war.
The Associated Press reported Wednesday that Japan said it would be happy if the talks resume and that if they do, credit should go to China for pushing ally North Korea back toward the table.
However, a senior official at South Korea's Foreign Ministry said the breakthrough may be meaningless without a specific date for a restart in negotiations, AP reported.
"There is no significant change, including the exact date when it will return to the six-nation talks," the official said.
