Bosworth calls on N. Korea to return to 6-way talks to discuss sanctions removal

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Jan. 13 (Yonhap) -- The United States will consider lifting sanctions
on North Korea only after the North returns to six-party talks and makes progress
on its denuclearization, U.S. President Barack Obama's special envoy for North
Korea said Wednesday.
"When North Korea comes back to six-party talks and resumes making progress for
the goal of denuclearization, the Security Council will examine the
appropriateness of a revision of the sanctions resolution," Stephen Bosworth,
special representative for North Korea policy, said in a forum at the Korea
Economic Institute here.
Bosworth was responding to North Korea's demand that sanctions be lifted before
it comes back to the six-party talks, which Pyongyang has boycotted since early
last year soon after the U.N. adopted resolutions to sanction the North for the
North's nuclear and missile tests.
The North also has called for the signing of a peace treaty that would replace
the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War before reopening multilateral
nuclear talks.
"The U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874 has within it the answer to that
question," Bosworth said. "So this is the answer we gave to North Koreans in
Pyongyang and the answer we will continue to give to every one who asks that
question."
hdh@yna.co.kr
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