The United States and North Korea will resume talks on normalizing relations in Geneva Sept. 1-2 under a six-way framework aimed at defusing Pyongyang's nuclear threat, Kyodo news agency reported Friday quoting a U.S. government source as saying.
At the working group gathering, the second of its kind, the two countries are expected to continue talks on North Korea's nuclear ambitions, in addition to discussing normalizing bilateral ties, Kyodo said.
Washington is keen on having all of Pyongyang's existing nuclear facilities disabled by the end of the year. For its part, North Korea could increase its pressure on the United States to remove the country from a U.S. state-sponsor-of-terrorism list.
The next plenary session of the six-party talks is likely to take place in mid-September or later as top U.S. nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill will head for Sydney to attend meetings of Pacific Rim ministers and leaders after the U.S.-North Korea session, Kyodo said.
The chief delegates from the six nations _ North and South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia _ agreed in their last meeting in July to hold meetings of all five working groups by the end of August to pave the way for a full six-party session.
The six countries held three working group meetings on energy aid Aug. 7-8, the technical details of the next stage of North Korea's denuclearization Aug. 16-17, and establishing a peace mechanism in Northeast Asia Aug 20-21.
Now that a U.S.-North Korea working group session has been set, the working group on normalizing ties between Japan and North Korea is the only one whose schedule and venue for the next meeting have yet to be fixed.