N. Korea, U.S. talks focus on denuclearisation

PanARMENIAN.Net - U.S. and North Korean officials on Thursday, February 23 held the first talks between the two nations since the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in December.

As M&C reported citing DPA, the United States wanted to use the talks to “find out what the new leadership in North Korea is prepared to do” towards fulfilling promises to end its nuclear weapons programme under a 2005 six-nation agreement, Glyn Davies, the U.S. special envoy for North Korea policy, said before the talks.

U.S. officials hoped to make progress during Thursday's talks on denuclearization, non-proliferation and 'humanitarian issues and human rights issues,' he said.

Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan led the North Korean delegation at the talks.

In Pyongyang's first comments on last year's bilateral meetings, a Foreign Ministry spokesman quoted by the state-run Korean Central News Agency last month accused the U.S. of reneging on an offer of more than 300,000 tons of food aid in exchange for North Korea suspending its uranium enrichment.

Davies said North Korean officials wanted to “get as much grain as they possibly can” from the U.S. He said previous talks on food aid had made “good progress” but U.S. officials wanted to ensure any aid reached vulnerable groups, including children under 5, pregnant women and the elderly outside North Korea's public food distribution system.

Davies said it was also “important that North Korea quickly take up again its dialogue with its neighbours, in particular South Korea but also with Japan.”

Host nation China is keen to restart negotiations involving North Korea, the United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia. Those talks have been stalled since the end of 2008. China has publicly supported North Korea's leadership transition to Kim Jong Un, the son of Kim Jong Il.