Clinton says no plans to go to Pyongyang, urges N. Korea to return to 6-way talks

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, May 7 (Yonhap) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said
Thursday she has no immediate plans to visit North Korea to revive the
multinational nuclear talks, stalled over the international condemnation of the
North's April 5 rocket launch.

"I have no plans of going to North Korea," Clinton told reporters at a joint
press availability with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. "We will be
sending our special envoy, Ambassador
Bosworth, out to the region to discuss our next steps."
Bosworth arrived in Beijing earlier in the day to discuss ways to persuade North
Korea to come back to the talks. He will return May 14 after visiting Seoul,
Tokyo and Moscow.
The envoy "has no current plans to visit North Korea," State Department spokesman
Robert Wood said Tuesday, adding "The delegation's meetings schedule is still
being arranged."
North Korea rebuffed Bosworth on his first official Asian trip in March as the
U.S. special representative for North Korea, and the climate has soured further
since the rocket launch.
Clinton last week described the chances of North Korea returning to the six-party
talks as "implausible if not impossible."
She, however, reiterated the need to denuclearize the North through six-party talks.
"I agree with Minister Lavrov's perspective after his recent visit that we have
to try to get the North Koreans back into the six-party-talk framework and
continue the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," she said. "We may have to
show some patience before that is achieved, but we agree on the goal that we are
aiming for."
North Korea threatened to abandon the six-party talks, restart its nuclear
facilities and conduct further nuclear and ballistic missile tests unless the
U.N. Security Council apologizes for its condemnation of Pyongyang's rocket
launch.
North Korea reversed the disabling process of its nuclear facilities soon after
the Security Council denounced the launch and tightened financial and trade
embargoes on three North Korean companies for their involvement in the trade of
missile parts and components of weapons of mass destruction.
The disabling was a key part of a six-party deal under which the North was
supposed to halt nuclear activities in return for heavy fuel oil shipments and
other benefits.
Some U.S. officials and experts believe that Pyongyang will conduct a second
nuclear test. Its first detonation in 2006 was considered a dud.
Wood hinted last week that the U.S. could undertake bilateral nuclear
negotiations with North Korea, saying, "If we have to look at other options, you
know, diplomatic options, we certainly will."
The Bill Clinton administration engaged North Korea bilaterally in an attempt to
resolve the North's nuclear and missile issues. The ensuing George W. Bush
administration suspended the talks for six years and came up with the six-party
format.
Pyongyang also fears the growing influence of China, the host of the six-party
talks, according to some observers. The economy of the reclusive North has been
greatly dependent on China.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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