Clinton says it is premature to meet N. Korean leader

Clinton says it is premature to meet N. Korean leader
SEOUL, Feb. 20 (Yonhap) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday her government has no plan yet for top-level contact with North Korea amid a protracted stall in efforts to denuclearize the communist nation.

In a roundtable with major South Korean news outlets here, the secretary
adamantly said she is not even considering a meeting with North Korean leader Kim
Jong-il.
"I have no intention or plan," she said. "It is not something we are even
contemplating."
During a primary debate, Obama expressed willingness to meet with shunned leaders
like North Korea's Kim Jong-il within his first year as president, raising
Pyongyang's hope of a bilateral settlement with Washington outside the six-way
talks also involving South Korea, China, Russia and Japan.
Clinton gave no clear answer on major differences between the Obama
administration's approach toward the North and that of the preceding Bush
government, saying the current government is still in an "assessment period."
She said, however, that the U.S. wants to "reiterate so that there is no
misunderstanding."
Speaking to female college students earlier in the day, Clinton said, "I make the
offer again here in Seoul: If North Korea is genuinely prepared to completely and
verifiably eliminate nuclear weapons, the Obama administration will be willing to
normalize bilateral relations, replace the peninsula's long-standing armistice
agreement with a permanent peace treaty and assist immediately the energy and
other economic and humanitarian needs of the Korean people."
On Washington's desire for Seoul's future role in Afghanistan, she maintained
ambiguity, pointing out the U.S. is still doing its own policy review.
She did not rule out the possibility of a request for a troop dispatch in case of
an unexpected situation.
"We are friends and allies," she said, adding South Korea and the U.S. will
"discuss something in the future."
(END)