By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter

The U.S. envoy on North Korea will likely spend two days in the isolated state and be accompanied by about four to five senior officials, according to reports Friday.

A day earlier, U.S. President Barack Obama said special envoy Stephen Bosworth will visit North Korea on Dec. 8 for bilateral talks aimed at discussing the nuclear issue.

``Ambassador Bosworth is expected to stay in Pyongyang for a day and a half,'' an official of the State Department was quoted as saying by Yonhap News.

The delegation is expected to urge Pyongyang to return to the six-party denuclearization talks and implement the Sept. 19 agreement struck in 2005.

Four years ago, the North agreed to abandon its nuclear program in return for political and economic assistance from its dialogue partners ― South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.

President Obama revealed Bosworth's trip to North Korea in Seoul, the last leg of his first presidential trip to Asia. But he noted that the United States will not repeat the existing pattern of reaching an agreement and offering compensation for the implementation of the agreement.

``We will not be distracted by a whole host of other side items that end up generating a lot of meetings but not concrete action,'' he said.

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly made similar remarks, saying, ``We are not interested in being distracted by issues beyond the issues.

``That's the complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. So that will be the focus of Ambassador Bosworth's trip to Pyongyang.''

He also stressed that the goal of the two-day dialogue is to get North Korea back to the six-way talks and secure its reaffirmation of the 2005 agreement.

The Obama administration is expected to soon announce the size of the delegation to North Korea and their itinerary.

North Korea declared its boycott of the multilateral talks after the United Nations adopted a resolution condemning its nuclear test on May 25.

But its ``Dear Leader'' Kim Jong-il expressed his willingness to join the talks in a meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao last month.

ksy@koreatimes.co.kr