U.S. wants to close dialogue with N. Korea in single phase: official

By Tony Chang
SEOUL, Nov. 30 (Yonhap) -- The U.S., which is set to hold direct bilateral talks
with North Korea next week to lure the country back to denuclearization talks,
wants the contact to be a one-off event but the North is expected to attempt to
drag out the two-way dialogue, a senior Seoul official said Monday.

U.S. special envoy on North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, is scheduled to fly to
Pyongyang on Dec. 8 on a mission to persuade Pyongyang to return to the six-party
nuclear disarmament forum it quit earlier this year. It will be the North's first
one-on-one dialogue with the U.S. Barack Obama administration, which took office
in January.
"North Korea will likely try to drag out the bilateral meeting with the U.S.,
while the U.S. is trying to finish the contact as a one-off event," a senior
diplomatic official told reporters, requesting anonymity.
The official said that Bosworth intends to enter North Korea with the mission of
bringing the communist state back to the six-party talks.
When asked on whether the two countries could later raise the level of bilateral
talks to the Cabinet-level, the official said that such prospects were "still
premature."
"If Bosworth goes to North Korea and produces some results on achieving
irreversible denuclearization, Secretary Hillary Clinton could possibly go to
Pyongyang, but looking at the North's position so far, that seems unlikely."
Pyongyang also seems to want recognition as a nuclear state, similar to India and
Pakistan, according to the official, who added that such a demand would most
likely not be met.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il told visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in
October that his country would rejoin the multilateral nuclear forum, depending
on the outcome of its bilateral talks with the U.S. His remarks were widely seen
as a hint that the North may opt to rejoin the stalled six-party forum. The other
parties involved are South Korea, China, Japan and Russia.
As a precondition of its return to the nuclear negotiations, North Korea still
insists on the establishment of a peace regime with the U.S., the official said.
Pyongyang's media routinely calls for the U.S. to replace the Korean War
armistice agreement with a peace treaty to be signed between it and the U.S.
The foreign ministry official said that Bosworth will fly to North Korea by way
of Seoul and stop over in Seoul on his way to Washington after the planned trip
to the North.
odissy@yna.co.kr
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