Asia-Pacific
US envoy in DPRK to push nuclear talks
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-12-08 16:05
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 US envoy Stephen Bosworth (L) leaves a hotel in Seoul to go to Pyongyang for talks with to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on December 8, 2009. [Agencies] |
SEOUL: US President Barack Obama's first envoy arrived in Pyongyang on Tuesday to try to bring the to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) back to the nuclear talks it quit a year ago, but without offering it any new incentives.
Stephen Bosworth is scheduled to stay for three days and meet top DPRK officials, but not leader Kim Jong-il, for talks analysts see likely to lead to a pledge from Pyongyang to end its boycott of nuclear discussions but not to breakthroughs.
Bosworth flew from an airbase near Seoul and landed at an airport on the outskirts of Pyongyang with his delegation, a one-line dispatch by the DPRK official KCNA news agency said.
Kim signalled in October during a visit to Pyongyang by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao that his country could return to the six-way nuclear talks if the United States dispatched an envoy.
"The worst outcome is North Korea's continued intransigence and a demand for US apologies and removal of (UN) sanctions," Victor Cha, a former member of the US delegation to the six-way talks under President George W. Bush, said in a newsletter for the Center For Strategic & International Studies.
Analysts have said the DPRK's economy may be forcing it back to the bargaining table, where it hopes to win aid. Pyongyang was hit with fresh UN sanctions after its nuclear test in May.
A senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Monday in Washington that Bosworth would not be offering any new inducements.
But he said any return to negotiations would enable Pyongyang to once again seek economic assistance offered under the 2005 framework - a strong incentive for a government facing both UN sanctions and a US Treasury effort to target its finances.
Bosworth's visit could be extended beyond three days if progress was being made, the US official said.
"If they are ready to go, we are confident that the chair of the talks would be ready to reconvene those talks," the official said, referring to the stalled six-way talks involving the DPRK, China, the Republic of Korea, Japan, Russia and the United States.
"If there are specific issues that the North wants to raise in terms of how to get them restarted, obviously we would listen to that."
