N. Korea agrees on need for six-way nuke talks: Bosworth

(ATTN: UPDATES throughout with envoy's comments)
By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, Dec. 10 (Yonhap) -- North Korea and the United States have reached a
"common understanding" on the need to resume the six-party nuclear talks and
implement a 2005 historic deal on the North's denuclearization, a senior U.S.
envoy said Thursday after a three-day trip there.
"We identified some common understandings on the need for and the role of the
six-party talks and the importance of the implementation of the 2005 Joint
Statement," Stephen Bosworth, special representative for North Korea policy, told
reporters, referring to a document in which the North pledged to abandon its
nuclear program in return for political and economic incentives.
He said, however, "It remains to be seen when and how the DPRK (North Korea) will
return to the six-party talks," adding further consultations are needed among the
other related parties -- South Korea, China, Japan, and Russia.
He said he had "extensive and useful talks in a candid and businesslike fashion
with the North's Vice Foreign Minister Kang Sok-ju and its top nuclear envoy, Kim
Kye-gwan.
"I communicated President's Obama's view that the complete denuclearization of
the Korean Peninsula is the fundamental undertaking of the six-party talks, if
resumed," he said.
As Obama has made clear, he added, the U.S. is prepared to work with its allies
and partners in the region to offer North Korea a different future.
The path for North Korea to realize this future is to "choose the door for
dialogue and the six-party talks and take irreversible steps for the
denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," he said.
Bosworth said he did not ask for a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
lcd@yna.co.kr
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