U.S. not to have bilaterals with N. Korea outside of 6-way: State Dept.

By Hwang Doo-hyong

WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 (Yonhap) -- The United States Monday said that it will consider having a bilateral dialogue with North Korea, but added that any meeting should be within the framework of six-party talks on ending the North's nuclear ambitions.

"We will not have any substantive bilateral talks with North Korea that's outside
of the six-party context; that our goal is to get North Korea to return to the
six-party context, six-party talks," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said in
a daily news briefing.
Kelly, however, said that no decision has yet been made on whether the U.S. will
have bilateral negotiations with North Korea.
Stephen Bosworth, U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, concluded
another trip to Asia last week, saying afterward: "The United States is willing
to engage with North Korea on a bilateral basis, and we are currently considering
how best to respond to a North Korean invitation for bilateral talks."
But Kelly said, "No decision has been made as to whether or not we will accept
this invitation for him to go to visit Pyongyang."
North Korea rejected a U.S. proposal to send Bosworth to Pyongyang in March amid
heightening tension over its imminent rocket launch. Following that event and the
North's second nuclear test, the U.N. slapped harsh sanctions on the North,
further angering the isolated regime.
But Pyongyang changed its tone, extending an invitation for talks in early August
when former U.S. President Bill Clinton visited the North Korean capital and met
with leader Kim Jong-il to win the release of two American journalists.
Kelly said that Bosworth discussed the North's invitation, which he said "came
fairly recently," while touring Asian capitals.
"The topic of this invitation for Ambassador Bosworth to go to Pyongyang was
discussed," he said. "I think it was a fairly simple, informal invitation that
they're willing to talk to Ambassador Bosworth."
A senior Obama administration official, asking anonymity, said Sunday that
"Bosworth collected views from the other four (dialogue partners) about a
U.S.-North Korea meeting -- timing, level, venue, content. He's developing next
steps based on input, not yet made a decision."
Talk of bilateral dialogue follows North Korea's announcement last week that it
has entered the final stages of enriching uranium, another path to making nuclear
weapons aside from processing plutonium.
The six-nation negotiations have been deadlocked over international sanctions on
North Korea after the North's nuclear and missile tests earlier this year.
North Korea has said it will boycott the multilateral talks for good, complaining
they have been used to infringe upon its sovereign right to develop nuclear and
space technology.
Pyongyang has demanded Washington deal with it bilaterally for a breakthrough,
while Washington insists on resolving the dispute through the six-party process
also involving South Korea, China, Japan and Russia.
The six-party agreement, signed in September 2005, calls for North Korea's
nuclear dismantlement in return for massive energy and economic aid,
normalization of ties with Washington and Tokyo and the establishment of a
permanent peace regime to replace the fragile armistice that ended the 1950-53
Korean War.
Analysts have said that Bosworth will either visit Pyongyang or fly to a third
country for talks with North Koreans on another Asia trip next month, describing
it as part of consultations with other six-party members, just as Christopher
Hill, the former chief U.S. nuclear negotiator, frequently did to woo North Korea
back to the table.
The anonymous senior official responded by saying, "I am glad you think so," when
asked his opinion on analysts saying Bosworth's Pyongyang visit should not be
seen as a big deal in consideration of several visits there by Hill and other
U.S. officials.
The decision for considering bilaterals comes amid criticism that North Korea is
building its nuclear arsenal for lack of active engagement by the Barack Obama
administration. Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, was often under fire for
designating Pyongyang as part of an axis of evil and then ignoring it, only to
see the North conduct a nuclear test and build several nuclear warheads.
North Korea said last week it was entering the final stages of a uranium
enrichment process, another path to making nuclear weapons. The North's
plutonium-producing reactor was to be dismantled under the six-party deal.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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