N. Korean official returns home after in U.S.

BEIJING, Nov. 5 (Yonhap) -- A senior North Korean diplomat returned home Thursday
after a high-profile visit to the United States, where he held rare one-on-one
meetings with a U.S. negotiator over the country's nuclear program.
Ri Gun, director general of the North American affairs bureau at North Korea's
Foreign Ministry, is expected to brief Pyongyang's leadership on the results of
his 11-day U.S. visit.
Ri held closed-door bilateral talks with Sung Kim, the U.S. special envoy to the
six-party nuclear talks, over ways to resume negotiations on the sidelines of
seminars in New York and San Diego.
At airports in New York and Beijing on his way back, Ri told reporters nothing.
He arrived in Beijing Tuesday night and headed home on Thursday.
Diplomatic watchers believe Ri and Kim gauged each other's positions over how to
arrange future bilateral dialogue between the two countries, including a
potential North Korea visit by Stephen Bosworth, U.S. special representative for
North Korea policy.
Foreign Policy magazine in the U.S. reported on Wednesday that the two sides have
agreed to hold two bilateral meetings before North Korea returns to the six-party
talks, which also involve South Korea, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia.
Pyongyang quit the multilateral talks in April in protest at a punitive U.N.
resolution for its long-range rocket test earlier that month.
Months after its nuclear test in May, North Korea has recently shifted its
diplomatic stance and reached out to South Korea and the U.S. for dialogue.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)