N. Korea demands direct talks with the U.S.

SEOUL, Nov. 2 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Monday pressed for direct dialogue with
the United States, which has been unresponsive to the communist nation's
invitation for a senior U.S. official to visit Pyongyang.

If Washington is not ready for such talks, Pyongyang will "go its own way," the
North's foreign ministry said.
"It is time for the U.S. to make a decision as we have expressed our lenient
position that we can hold multilateral negotiations including the six-way talks,"
the ministry's unidentified spokesman told the country's official news agency
KCNA.
The comments came as Ri Gun, the North's deputy nuclear envoy, was set to return
home after a weeklong trip to the U.S. where he met with Sung Kim, the U.S.
special envoy on the six-way talks, apparently to discuss conditions for a
possible visit by Stephen Bosworth, special representative for North Korea
policy, to Pyongyang.
Neither North Korea nor the U.S. have released the details of the Ri-Kim meeting,
the first official contact between the two sides under the Obama administration.
lcd@yna.co.kr
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