US envoy in nuke talks with N. Korea
Source: Agencies |
December 9, 2009, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
UNITED States President Barack Obama's first envoy to North Korea arrived in Pyongyang yesterday to try to coax the prickly state back to the nuclear talks it quit a year ago, but without offering it any new incentives.
Stephen Bosworth is scheduled to stay for three days and meet top North Korean officials, but not leader Kim Jong-il, for talks analysts see likely to lead to a pledge from Pyongyang to end its boycott of nuclear discussions but not to breakthroughs.
Old pledge
A senior US official said Bosworth wanted to assess whether North Korea really planned to return to negotiations and abide by a four-year-old pledge to give up building an atomic arsenal in return for massive aid and security guarantees.
Bosworth flew from an airbase near Seoul and landed at an airport on the outskirts of Pyongyang with his delegation, a one-line dispatch by North Korea's official KCNA news agency said.
Kim signaled in October during a visit to Pyongyang by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao that his state could return to the six-way nuclear talks if the United States dispatched an envoy.
"The worst outcome is North Korea's continued intransigence and a demand for US apologies and removal of (UN) sanctions," Victor Cha, a former member of the US delegation to the six-way talks under US President George W. Bush, said in a newsletter for the Center For Strategic & International Studies.
Analysts have said North Korea's broken economy may be forcing it back to the bargaining table, where it hopes to win aid.
North Korea was hit with fresh United Nations sanctions after its nuclear test in May.
Stephen Bosworth is scheduled to stay for three days and meet top North Korean officials, but not leader Kim Jong-il, for talks analysts see likely to lead to a pledge from Pyongyang to end its boycott of nuclear discussions but not to breakthroughs.
Old pledge
A senior US official said Bosworth wanted to assess whether North Korea really planned to return to negotiations and abide by a four-year-old pledge to give up building an atomic arsenal in return for massive aid and security guarantees.
Bosworth flew from an airbase near Seoul and landed at an airport on the outskirts of Pyongyang with his delegation, a one-line dispatch by North Korea's official KCNA news agency said.
Kim signaled in October during a visit to Pyongyang by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao that his state could return to the six-way nuclear talks if the United States dispatched an envoy.
"The worst outcome is North Korea's continued intransigence and a demand for US apologies and removal of (UN) sanctions," Victor Cha, a former member of the US delegation to the six-way talks under US President George W. Bush, said in a newsletter for the Center For Strategic & International Studies.
Analysts have said North Korea's broken economy may be forcing it back to the bargaining table, where it hopes to win aid.
North Korea was hit with fresh United Nations sanctions after its nuclear test in May.
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