North Korea Ready for Talks with U.S. over Nuclear Program

Following a meeting in Santa Fe with North Korean diplomats, New Mexico governor Bill Richardson has confirmed that the country whose development of a nuclear capability has caused serious concerns in many parts of the world is ready to negotiate.

At Wednesday's meeting North Korea was represented by Kim Myong-Gil and Paek Jong-Ho, two of its senior diplomats at the United Nations, and the men indicated that rather than return to the six-party talks from which their country withdrew in April it wishes to sit down with only the U.S. Governor Richardson clarified the reason why the highly secretive state, whose leader is Kim Jong II, wants to speak with just the U.S. when he said:

They don't like the six-party talks, they felt that it's produced sanctions on them. They want a new format -- and the format they want is direct talks with the United States

Another reason why North Korea prefers not to sit down again with Japan, Russia, China and South Korea regarding the nuclear issue is because, as CNN reports, its officials seem to believe that by releasing the two American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling the U.S. is somehow in its debt. The two women were pardoned by the regime in Pyongyang during a private visit there by former U.S. President Bill Clinton. Responding to that assumption on the part of the North Koreans, Governor Richardson, who did not met with the diplomats at the request of the White House or to pursue any specific agenda the Obama administration might have, said:

They do feel they are owed a gesture on the U.S. part. I don't believe that should be the case because this was a humanitarian gesture that needed to happen

Regardless of what the North Koreans may believe they are "owed" by the U.S., Governor Richardson, himself a former ambassador to the UN, spoke of the "positive vibrations" and "lessening of tension" he sensed at the meeting. The official line from Washington remains that six-party talks are the "best forum" in which the nuclear ambitions of North Korea, who as Global Security Newswire reports began nuclear testing and firing missiles after it withdrew from the previous negotiations in April, can be discussed. Nevertheless an unnamed official did concede that "some form of re-engagement" is possible now that the Pyongyang regime has seemingly moderated its stance. But State Department spokesman Ian Kelly reiterated what the ideal scenario from the viewpoint of Washington would be when he stated:

Our goal is very simple and very clear. Our goal is the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. And, of course, we want to see progress toward that

Separate from the informal discussions taking place in New Mexico, North Korea announced that it was sending a "special envoy group" to the South Korean capital Seoul on Friday to pay its country's final respects to Kim Dae Jung, who died this week aged 85. As the Daily Telegraph notes, during his time as President of South Korea, Mr Kim sought rapprochement with his country's northern neighbor. Pursuing what was known as the "sunshine policy" he effected a meeting between the two countries in June 2000 that was the first since fighting in the Korean War ceased in 1953.