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DPRK invites US envoy for nuclear talks: reports

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-08-25 13:32

 

US special envoy for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea Stephen Bosworth (R) poses for photographs with his Republic of Korea counterpart Wi Sung-lac before their meeting at a hotel in Seoul August 22, 2009. [Agencies]

SEOUL: The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has invited the US official charged with managing relations with the state to visit next month for talks on its nuclear arms programme, the Republic of Korea (ROK) media outlets reported on Tuesday.

If the reports are accurate, the DPRK's invitation for Stephen Bosworth would mark another step in Pyongyang reaching out to the world after its broken economy was hit by UN sanctions for its nuclear test in May.

Bosworth would lead a delegation first travelling to the ROK, China and Japan to discuss stalled six-way disarmament-for-aid talks with the DPRK before heading to Pyongyang, the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported quoting a senior diplomatic source in Washington as saying.

The ROK's Yonhap news agency ran a similar report with a diplomatic source in Washington saying the DPRK extended the invitation when former President Bill Clinton went to Pyongyang this month to win the release of two US journalists imprisoned for illegal entry.

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If Bosworth does go, it would mark the first official bilateral talks between Pyongyang and the administration of President Barack Obama on the nuclear issue.

US embassy officials in Seoul, where Bosworth was earlier this week, would not comment on the reports.

US officials have said they are willing to hold direct talks with the DPRK within the context of the six-country disarmament negotiations involving the DPRK, the ROK, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.

The talks, hosted by China, broke down at the end of last year with Pyongyang now boycotting the discussions and saying it sees the format as dead.

The DPRK, however, has made a series of conciliatory gestures in recent months to the US and the ROK that include the talks with Clinton, sending its first envoys to Seoul in nearly two years and proposing the resumption of tourism and business projects with the ROK.

Philip Goldberg, the US coordinator for the UN sanctions on the DPRK, has been in Asia in recent days to seek support for the punishments aimed at stamping out the DPRK's arms trade, which estimates say provide it with at least hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

Analysts said the rare conciliatory gestures from the DPRK may indicate that sanctions could be squeezing the state and forcing it to seek funds for its depleted coffers. The DPRK's vital agriculture sector has also taken a blow this year by flooding that hurt farmland.