U.S., N.K. officials hold informal meetings on margins of seminar: State Dept.

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Oct. 27 (Yonhap) -- Officials of North Korea and the United States
held informal talks to revive the stalled six-party nuclear talks on the margins
of a seminar in San Diego, the State Department said Tuesday.

"Both are participating in this track two forum, and I assume that they've had
plenty of opportunities to talk on the margins of it," spokesman Ian Kelly said.
"But there has been no formal talks or anything set up. When I say a formal
bilateral meeting, I mean a meeting that has a particular agenda where the two
sides sit down."
Kelly was discussing the seminar in San Diego attended by Sung Kim, special envoy
for the six-party talks, and Ri Gun, director general of the North American
affairs bureau of the North's foreign ministry.
In an hour-long meeting with Ri in New York Friday, Kim called on the North to
return to the six-party talks, deadlocked over U.N. sanctions on North Korea for
its nuclear and missile tests.
Kelly said Friday's talks were "very much focused on how we get back to the
six-party talks and get to our ultimate goal of the denuclearization of the
Korean Peninsula."
He did not elaborate on the substance of the informal talks at the Northeast Asia
Cooperative Dialogue (NEACD), held Monday and Tuesday at the University of
California, San Diego.
South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said Monday that the bilateral
dialogue between Ri and Kim focused on a visit to Pyongyang by Stephen Bosworth,
U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, for a breakthrough on the
stalled nuclear negotiations.
In a conciliatory gesture after months of provocations, North Korean leader Kim
Jong-il expressed his willingness to come back to the talks when he met with
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao this month in Pyongyang.
Kim, however, linked the North's participation to the outcome of bilateral talks
with the U.S.
Critics say the North's recent overtures are nothing more than its traditional
brinkmanship: creating a crisis before returning to dialogue in exchange for
rewards.
"The Obama administration is wary of appearing too soft on the nuclear
disarmament process involving North Korea," Michael J. Green, a senior adviser
and Japan chairman at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, in a
contribution to the Web site of Council on Foreign Relations. "The administration
has noted Pyongyang's failure to follow through with bargains made in connection
with the Bush team's agreement to bilateral talks."
On the North's insistence on having a bilateral dialogue rather than the
six-party format, Green said, "The North Koreans have made their decision and are
not going to give up their nuclear weapons. So in some ways this question of
bilateral versus multilateral is tangential."
Iran might be another factor in Washington's approach to Pyongyang, he said.
"A major factor in Washington's reluctance to rush into talks is that the Obama
administration sees far greater prospects of success with Iran, so they don't
want to let North Korea set a bad precedent. They don't want to send any signal
that there's going to be a loosening of sanctions in exchange for just talking."
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last week that the U.S. will not
lift sanctions on North Korea or normalize ties unless Pyongyang takes
irreversible steps toward denuclearization.
She, however, left open the possibility of bilateral dialogue.
"Within the framework of the six-party talks, we are prepared to meet bilaterally
with North Korea," she said. "But North Korea's return to the negotiating table
is not enough."
hdh@yna.co.kr
(END)