N. Korea, US Agree to Narrow Differences
By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
North Korea said Friday that it had agreed to cooperate to narrow differences during a meeting with a special envoy of U.S. President Barack Obama.
It said it had reached common ground with the U.S. on the need to resume the stalled six-party nuclear talks and the implementation of the 2005 joint statement.
The reaction came a day after Stephen Bosworth, U.S. representative for North Korea policy, said his three-day trip to Pyongyang and meetings with North Korean officials were "very useful."
"Both sides had a long, exhaustive and candid discussion on wide-ranging issues, including the conclusion of a peace agreement, the normalization of bilateral relations, economic and energy assistance, and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," a foreign ministry spokesman said.
The 2005 statement was adopted at the fourth round of six-way talks in which the North promised to give up all nuclear weapons and return to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The spokesman said that North Korea and the United States had agreed to "continue to cooperate with each other in the future to narrow down the remaining differences," according to the North's Korean Central News Agency.
The U.S. took a wait-and-see approach about the possibility of North Korea's return to the multilateral forum.
Based on the Pyongyang meeting, "we thought it was constructive, but we await, you know, more information from North Korea as to whether and how they will proceed to come back to the six-party process," said Philip Crowley, assistant secretary of state for public affairs.
He continued: "Whether that means, you know, a phone call or another meeting, we'll wait and see."
Bosworth arrived in Beijing, Friday, for talks with Chinese officials on his North Korea trip. He is also scheduled to visit Japan, Saturday, and Russia, Sunday, before returning home Tuesday.