U.S. envoy urges N. Korea to return to 6-party talks+

SEOUL, May 8 Kyodo -
Stephen Bosworth, the top U.S. official on policies toward North Korea, called
on Pyongyang on Friday to return to the negotiating table at the six-party
talks on its denuclearization.
''For the United States and all the six parties, the door to dialogue is always
open,'' Bosworth told reporters after emerging from talks with South Korean
Foreign Minister Yu Myung Hwan.
Bosworth, who arrived in Seoul from Beijing earlier Friday, also reiterated a
U.S. offer to hold bilateral talks with North Korea.
''We are also prepared to deal with North Korea bilateral relations in a way
that reinforces the multilateral process,'' he said.
Bosworth warned North Korea against carrying out another nuclear test, saying
''We will deal with the consequences if North Korea decides to carry out a
second nuclear test.''
North Korea, which exploded a nuclear device underground in October 2006, has
threatened to carry out another nuclear test and test-launch intercontinental
ballistic missiles after the U.N. Security Council condemned its rocket launch
in early April.
Bosworth also met with Wi Sung Lac, South Korea's chief delegate to the
six-party talks. Wi said his talks with Bosworth covered ways to prevent North
Korea from acting provocatively.
''Any provocative act (by North Korea) can't be passed as if nothing has
happened. There will be a corresponding response,'' Wi told reporters shortly
after his talks with Bosworth.
Wi said he and Bosworth also discussed ways to revive the six-party talks, but
gave no details.
In a statement apparently directed at Bosworth's tour of the Asian region,
North Korea on Friday blasted the administration of U.S. President Barack
Obama, saying U.S. ''hostility'' remains unchanged.
''Nothing would be expected from the United States which remains unchanged in
its hostility toward its dialogue partner,'' a North Korean Foreign Ministry
spokesman said in a report carried by the North's official Korean Central News
Agency.
''The DPRK will bolster its nuclear deterrent as it has already clarified,''
the spokesman was quoted as saying. DPRK is an acronym for North Korea's
official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Pyongyang said on April 14 that it was pulling out of the six-party talks in
response to the Security Council's censure of its April 5 rocket launch.
North Korea says the launch put a satellite into orbit. Many countries viewed
it as a cover for testing long-range missile technology.
Bosworth is visiting four countries involved in the six-party talks on North
Korea's nuclear programs. Traveling with Bosworth is Sung Kim, the U.S. envoy
for the six-party talks. The group will fly to Tokyo on Monday and visit Moscow
on Tuesday before returning to Washington.
Bosworth has said he has no plans to visit Pyongyang or meet with North Korean
officials during the current Asia tour.
The six-party talks have been stalled since December due to differences over
ways to verify Pyongyang's nuclear activities.
==Kyodo
2009-05-08 23:16:59