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No plan yet for US-DPRK talks, US says

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-10-30 07:18

WASHINGTON: Informal contacts between US officials and a senior Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) diplomat have not produced plans for formal bilateral talks, the US State Department said on Thursday.

Ri Gun, DPRK's second-ranking nuclear negotiator, met in New York and in California with Sung Kim, the US special envoy to disarmament talks.

Related readings:  US, DPRK officials meet in New York  US imposes news sanctions against DPRK  US experts suggest multiple engagement with DPRK  US to keep sanctions against DPRK till denuclearization  US-DPRK talks hinge on renewed six-party process  US-DPRK talks likely ahead of six-party negotiations

The rare contacts were seen as a possible step toward a formal US-DPRK meeting that would in turn lead to a resumption of long-stalled six-country nuclear talks. But a State Department spokesman said no new meetings were agreed.

"There was no agreement for a specific bilateral meeting and no agreement to make any announcement of that sort, either," said spokesman Ian Kelly, quoting Sung Kim.

Kim and Ri met in New York on October 24 and then earlier this week at a closed-door "Track II" meeting of Northeast Asia experts in La Jolla, California.

Kim had used the New York meeting to convey to Ri the US position on the six-party talks, the State Department said.

Washington is willing to meet DPRK in a bilateral setting, if such contacts lead to a resumption of six-party talks that also include China, Japan, Russia and South Korea.

The six-party talks have been stalled since DPRK quit them six months ago. Then in May Pyongyang conducted its second nuclear test.

Ri is scheduled to attend another unofficial meeting with Asia experts in New York on Friday, but Kelly said it had not been decided yet whether Sung Kim would travel to New York for more meetings with the DPRK envoy.