Bosworth due in Seoul on N. Korean denuclearization: State Dept.

By Hwang Doo-hyong

WASHINGTON, Sept. 2 (Yonhap) -- The U.S. point man on North Korea, Ambassador Stephen Bosworth, will fly to Seoul Friday as part of a three-nation Asian tour to discuss ways to persuade North Korea to return to the six-party talks on ending its nuclear ambitions, the State Department said.

Spokesman Ian Kelly said that Bosworth, special representative for North Korea
policy, left Wednesday for Beijing "to continue consultations with our partners
and allies. His goal is to explore how best to convince North Korea that it must
live up to its obligations under the September 2005 Joint Statement and take
irreversible steps toward complete denuclearization."
After Beijing, Kelly said, Bosworth will travel to Seoul and Tokyo before coming
back home Tuesday.
Accompanying Bosworth is Sung Kim, special envoy for the six-party talks, who in
Seoul will meet with a Russian counterpart, Kelly said, adding, "They (the
Russians) suggested that they meet in Seoul."
Reports said that Bosworth might also travel to Pyongyang, but Kelly dismissed
that notion.
"Bosworth has no plans to travel to Pyongyang or to meet with North Korean
officials," he said.
The spokesman, meanwhile, said that Bosworth "will discuss the role of bilateral
talks with North Korea within the context of the six-party process."
North Korea has reportedly extended an invitation to Bosworth for bilateral talks
on its nuclear weapons programs, but the U.S. insists on having two-way talks
only within the six-nation framework.
The multilateral talks, involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and
Russia, have been stalled as a result of international sanctions slapped on North
Korea after its nuclear and missile tests in recent months.
Reports said that the invitation was extended to Bosworth when former U.S.
President Bill Clinton visited Pyongyang to win the release of two American
journalists in early August.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il met with Clinton for more than three hours and
called for the resumption of a bilateral dialogue.
The Asia trip comes during a thaw in North Korea's relations with the U.S. and
South Korea.
North Korea also released recently a South Korean worker at the joint industrial
park in North's border city of Kaesong and four South Korean fishermen whose boat
strayed into the North.
The reclusive regime has also allowed the resumption of reunions of families
separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, as well as inter-Korean tour projects and
work at the Kaesong industrial complex.
Those projects foundered last year soon after the inauguration of the hardline
Lee Myung-bak government, which ended aid and economic cooperation, demanding
Pyongyang's commitment to nuclear dismantlement.
North Korea also sent a high-level delegation to South Korea to mourn the death
of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, with whom North Korean leader Kim
Jong-il held the first inter-Korean summit in 2000.
Lee received the North Korean delegation in the first high-level contact between
the two Koreas since his taking office in February last year, although the sides
fell short of agreeing on a summit, due apparently to the North's refusal to
discuss its nuclear programs.
North Korea has said the issue of nuclear programs is one to be discussed with
the U.S. and avoided the subject at the inter-Korean summits with Lee's liberal
predecessors, Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun, focusing instead on food and energy
aid and economic cooperation.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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