(2nd LD) U.S., N.K. officials meet in New York on N. Korean nuke: State Dept.

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By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 (Yonhap) -- A high-level U.S. envoy met with a senior North
Korean official in New York Saturday to discuss Pyongyang's denuclearization, the
U.S. State Department said.

Sung Kim, U.S. special envoy to the six-party nuclear talks, met with Ri Gun,
director general of the North American affairs bureau of North Korea's Foreign
Ministry, who arrived in New York Friday to attend a set of seminars.
"DPRK Ambassador Ri Gun has traveled to the U.S. on the invitation of U.S.
private organizations," State Dept. spokesman Noel Clay said in a statement.
"During his visit, Ambassador Sung Kim took the opportunity to meet with him in
New York on Oct. 24 to convey our position on denuclearization and the six-party
talks." DPRK stands for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea.
In New York, Ri emerged from a one-hour meeting at the U.S. mission to the United
Nations and told reporters: "I met with Sung Kim and discussed issues of mutual
interest."
Ri stopped short of discussing the substance of the talks, saying, "Let's wait
and see." The North Korean official said he may meet with Sung Kim again.
Kim Myong-gil, deputy head of the North Korean mission to the U.N. in New York,
said, "We have no plans to meet here again today. We will see you in San Diego."
Ri has been invited to participate in the Northeast Asia Cooperative Dialogue
(NEACD) at the University of California, San Diego, and also a seminar in New
York hosted by the National Committee on American Foreign Policy and the Korea
Society.
The event in San Diego, set for Oct. 25-27 and organized by the Institute on
Global Conflict and Cooperation, is intended to bring together academics as well
as government officials from all member nations of the six-party talks on ending
the North Korean nuclear program -- the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Russia and
Japan.
Clay said that Sung Kim and Derek Mitchell, principal deputy assistant secretary
of defense, will participate in the NEACD in San Diego.
"NEACD is an annual track II event," Clay said. "Our level of participation this
year is the same as previous years."
Alexander Arvizu, then deputy assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific
Affairs, attended last year's NEACD session in Beijing along with Jung Tae-yang,
vice director general of the American bureau of the North Korean Foreign
Ministry.
Kim and Ri are expected to meet again next week to discuss preparations for a
visit to Pyongyang by Stephen Bosworth, U.S. special representative for North
Korea policy, for a breakthrough on the stalled nuclear negotiations.
North Korea extended the invitation to Bosworth in August when former U.S.
President Bill Clinton visited the North Korean capital to win the release of two
American journalists.
North Korea has boycotted the six-party talks due to U.N. sanctions for its
nuclear and missile tests, but North Korean leader Kim Jong-il expressed his
intention to come back to the talks earlier this month when he met with Chinese
Premier Wen Jiabao in Pyongyang.
Kim, however, linked the North's participation to the outcome of the anticipated
bilateral talks with the U.S., which has yet to make a concrete decision on
whether to send Bosworth to Pyongyang.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that the U.S. will not
lift sanctions on North Korea or normalize ties unless Pyongyang takes
irreversible steps toward denuclearization.
"Within the framework of the six-party talks, we are prepared to meet bilaterally
with North Korea. But North Korea's return to the negotiating table is not
enough," she said.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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