N. Korean diplomats meet with ex-US officials in Malaysia

A North Korean delegation led by its deputy foreign minister held talks with former government officials of the United States in Malaysia for a second day on Saturday to discuss pending issues such as the North's nuclear and missile tests. / Yonhap

A North Korean delegation led by its deputy foreign minister held talks with former government officials of the United States in Malaysia for a second day on Saturday to discuss pending issues such as the North's nuclear and missile tests.

The U.S.-North Korea contact, although it is informal or unofficial, came after North Korea conducted its fifth and most powerful nuclear test in September, just eight months after its previous nuke test.

"I came here through Beijing," the North's deputy ambassador to the United Nations Jang Il-hun told Yonhap News Agency. As for topics discussed during the dialogue, he said the two sides talked about several "pending issues and each other's thoughts on them."

Asked whether there was an offer from the U.S. to stop its nuclear and missile tests, he fell short of clarifying, but said, "hopely moving forward."

North Korea's vice foreign minister Han Song-ryol was also among the five-member delegation. The four-member U.S. delegation included Robert Gallucci, who negotiated a landmark 1994 nuclear freeze deal with Pyongyang; former U.S. deputy nuclear negotiator Joseph R. DeTrani; and Leon Sigal, director of the Northeast Asia Cooperative Security Project at the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) in New York.

Sigal told Yonhap News that the two parties mainly discussed the North's nuclear and missile issues during the informal dialogue.

The North stuck to its stance that it wants to sign a peace treaty with the U.S. before it stops its nuclear and missile programs. But the U.S. reiterated its position that scrapping nuclear programs should be put before anything else, Sigal said.

Drawing his own conclusions that there was partial progress in the informal meetings, he expected no official dialogue with the North under the Obama administration, but that a new U.S. government needs to reconsider policies toward the North.

Diplomatic sources said the behind-the-scene meeting, seen to be aimed at delving into each other's stance, is rare as the communist state is vowing to continue its nuclear ambitions and missile tests, in defiance of international pressure.

On Thursday, the North test-fired a mid-range Musudan missile, although it ended in failure.

The U.N. Security Council (UNSC) is working on a fresh sanctions resolution to punish Pyongyang for its latest nuclear provocation. In March, the UNSC slapped tougher sanctions on the North for its nuclear and long-range rocket launches early in the year.

Experts in Seoul said that Han's visit here is to explore options with the U.S. at a time when the country is slated to pick a new president next month.

"Han may try to deliver North Korea's message to U.S. private experts if Pyongyang seeks to explore what conditions are needed to change the atmosphere after the U.S. presidential election," said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul. (Yonhap)