Kim Kye-gwan pursues successful nuclear talks: report

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's chief nuclear envoy says he wants
to successfully conclude nuclear talks with the U.S. and improve ties with the
world's superpower.
"We are committing our own efforts for the good result and for the good future of
relations between our two nations and for successful talks with the United States
and to defend the peace, which is the common goal of our two nations, the
Americans and the people of the DPRK, to live as friends," Vice Foreign Minister
Kim Kye-gwan said in an interview aired on the Fox News program "On the Record"
Monday evening.
DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official
name.
"I wish the Americans well and wish everything goes well in the United States,"
Kim said in the interview with Fox in Pyongyang soon after he met with the Rev.
Franklin Graham, who visited the North Korean capital in his capacity as the head
of a relief organization. "I want peace in the United States."
Kim's remarks come amid reports that his deputy, Ri Gun, arrived in Beijing
Wednesday on his way to the U.S. for possible talks with U.S. officials on the
sidelines of a seminar in San Diego early next week.
U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Monday that American officials
will attend the meeting in San Diego, although the attendees have not yet been
selected.
Sung Kim, special envoy for six-party talks, is expected to fly to San Diego to
meet with Ri to discuss preparations for a possible visit to Pyongyang by Steven
Bosworth, U.S. special representative for North Korea policy.
North Korea extended an invitation to the U.S. point man on North Korea when
former President Bill Clinton visited Pyongyang in August to win the release of
two American journalists.
Kelly said Monday no decision has been made on whether to accept the invitation.
U.S. officials recently expressed willingness to have bilateral talks with the
North Koreans to woo them back to the six-party forum, which the North has been
boycotting due to U.N. sanctions for its nuclear and missile tests.
Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs,
told a forum at the Council on Foreign Relations Monday that the U.S. "would be
prepared for, in the right circumstances at some point, some initial interaction
that would lead rapidly to a six-party framework."
Ri, director general of the North American affairs bureau of North Korea's
Foreign Ministry, has been invited to participate in the Northeast Asia
Cooperative Dialogue (NEACD) at the University of California, San Diego, set for
Oct. 26-27, and also to a seminar in New York hosted by the National Committee on
American Foreign Policy and the Korea Society.
Ri visited New York last November to attend an academic seminar soon after the
election of Barack Obama as U.S. president. At the time, Ri met with Sung Kim,
U.S. special envoy for the six-party talks, and other American officials and key
policy advisers to Obama.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il recently agreed to return to the multilateral
talks on the condition that bilateral talks with the U.S. produce results.
The U.S. has said it will continue sanctioning the North until Pyongyang returns
to the six-party forum and takes substantial denuclearization steps. U.S.
officials believe that the sanctions have effectively pressured the North to
makes conciliatory gestures after months of provocations.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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