U.S. Signals Willingness to Talk Direct With North Korea

The U.S. State Department has indicated that it is ready to speak directly with North Korea if that is what is required to persuade the regime in Pyongyang to return to six-nation talks aimed at addressing the issue of its nuclear program.

It was in April that North Korea, angry at United Nations censure over their nuclear testing, pulled out of the six-nation talks that also involved the U.S., Russia, Japan, China and South Korea. As the New York Times reports, shortly after withdrawing from the talks, the North Koreans raised the hackles of the international community once more by recommencing nuclear testing and missile launches. Then in August two North Korean diplomats at the United Nations, Kim Myong-Gil and Paek Jong-Ho, made a trip to New Mexico to meet with the state's governor Bill Richardson. Whilst there the two men told Mr Richardson, himself a former ambassador to the UN, that their country wished to engage in bilateral talks with Washington. Whilst maintaining the stance that six-nation talks were the best forum in which to discuss the Pyongyang regime's desire to possess a nuclear capability, one reason for that stance is thought to be that the involvement of China may bring more influence to bear on North Korea, there were signs that the Obama administration might be prepared to take up the North Koreans' suggestion and engage in bilateral talks. The U.S. Special Envoy for North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, was recently invited to visit the East Asian country. Mr Bosworth has yet to make such a visit, but he has just returned from elsewhere in Asia where he met with Chinese, Japanese, Russian and South Korean officials. Those talks appear to have given the U.S. some kind of green light to meet with the North Koreans for bilateral talks because the following announcement was made by State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley after Mr Bosworth's return to the U.S:

We are prepared to enter into a bilateral discussion with North Korea. When it'll happen, where it'll happen, we'll have to wait and see. We've made no decisions at this point, other than just to say we are prepared for a bilateral talk, if that will help advance the six-party process

It is considered unlikely that any talks will commence before the U.N. General Assembly later this month in New York where U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to discuss the issue of North Korea with her Russian, Chinese, Japanese and South Korean counterparts. In general North Korea does seem to be making an effort of late to improve its relations with the countries who want to sit down with it to discuss the nuclear issue. As CNN reports, in addition to the release of two American journalists, which followed a visit to Pyongyang by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, North Korea has also released five South Korean citizens and started up talks again with its Southern neighbor on the subject of reuniting families who were separated by the Korean War. Attempts are also being made by the two Korean countries to make traffic along their border much easier.