Bosworth meets Clinton to brief on Pyongyang trip: State Dept.

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 (Yonhap) -- The U.S. point man on North Korea returned home
Tuesday after a rare trip to North Korea, and met with Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton for a debriefing on his effort to persuade the North back to the
six-party denuclearization talks, the State Department said.

Stephen Bosworth, special representative for North Korea policy, filled in
Clinton "on his visit in Pyongyang and his consultations following Pyongyang"
with other members of the six-party forum, Philip Crowley, assistant secretary of
state for public affairs, said.
Bosworth will give a news conference Wednesday, another official said.
Bosworth made a three-day visit to Pyongyang last week, the first high-level
contact with North Korea since the Obama administration took office in January.
He failed to obtain the North's commitment to return to the six-party talks, but
said the participants "identified some common understandings" on the need to
restart the six-party talks. The talks involving the two Koreas, the United
States, China, Russia and Japan have been deadlocked since the U.N. sanctions
imposed earlier this year after the North's nuclear and missile tests.
Clinton last week described Bosworth's meeting with North Koreans as "quite
positive," stressing the need for "strategic patience" in dealing with the
reclusive communist regime.
Crowley, meanwhile, would not respond to a question on the destination of a
Georgia-registered cargo plane impounded in Bangkok Saturday while carrying 35
tons of North Korean weapons.
"I think the Thai officials are still investigating that airplane and its cargo,"
he said. "They will report to the sanctions committee in the U.N. on what their
findings are."
Thai authorities reportedly said that they were tipped off by the U.S.
They said they confiscated the North Korean arms on the strength of U.N.
resolutions that call for the interdiction of cargo to prevent the proliferation
of nuclear weapons, missiles, other weapons of mass destruction and conventional
arms.
Crowley said last week Washington is ready to have another high-level meeting
with North Korea toward reopening the six-party talks, but emphasized that the
U.S. will continue sanctions.
Arms sales are one of the major sources of revenue for North Korea, suspected of
being behind nuclear and missile proliferation in Syria, Iran, Pakistan and
several other countries in the Middle East.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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