U.S. eyed envoy visit to N. Korea on condition Pyongyang halt launch+

TOKYO, March 14 Kyodo - Stephen Bosworth, the new U.S. special representative for policy on North Korea, was willing to visit North Korea during his trip to Asia in early March on condition that Pyongyang agree to refrain from launching a long-range ballistic missile, diplomatic sources said Saturday.

Although Bosworth was prepared to convey a message from U.S. President Barack
Obama expressing Washington's intention to resolve the North Korean nuclear
issue and to achieve the normalization of bilateral ties, North Korea rejected
the idea of a visit, the sources said.
Shortly before the Asia trip from March 3 to 10, Sung Kim, the U.S. special
envoy for the six-party nuclear talks, and a senior White House official
proposed the visit by Bosworth to North Korea through a diplomatic channel at
the United Nations, the sources said.
Kim and the senior official told the North Korean side that the visit would
take place on condition that Pyongyang agree to refrain from launching the
missile, according to the sources.
But North Korea did not respond to the offer immediately and Bosworth left for
his tour of China, Japan and South Korea with Obama's message, they said.
Bosworth would have conveyed Obama's intention to achieve the normalization of
U.S.-North Korean relations and would have urged Pyongyang to achieve a
diplomatic resolution of the missile and nuclear issues if he had visited North
Korea, the sources said.
The U.S. envoy left Seoul for home on Tuesday because Pyongyang did not respond
positively to the idea of Bosworth visiting North Korea, they said.
North Korea has informed international organizations of its plan to launch a
satellite between April 4 and 8, but some countries suspect that the launch is
a cover for test-firing a long-range ballistic missile.
==Kyodo