(December 11, 2009) SEOUL– Discussing his talks with North Korea, special U.S. envoy Stephen Bosworth said yesterday it isn’t clear when or how North Korea will return to the six-party talks, but the two sides had a common understanding on the need to resume the talks and to implement a prior joint agreement on denuclearization.

Bosworth returned from his trip to Pyongyang yesterday and addressed reporters in Seoul. He said he had “extensive” and “candid” talks with North Korean officials, including Kang Sok-ju, the first vice foreign minister, and Kim Gye-gwan, vice foreign minister. “Our discussions were held within in the framework of six-party talks,” Bosworth said, “and were focused on the way to move forward on the verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and implementation of the other elements of the joint statement of September 2005.”

Bosworth was referring to the statement reached after the six-party talks that year. North Korea then committed to abandoning nuclear programs and other parties offered energy and economic assistance.

“My purpose in meeting with DPRK officials in Pyongyang was to facilitate the resumption of the six-party talks, and to reaffirm the goal of fully implementing the September 2005 joint statement,” Bosworth said. “I also conveyed to them that the absence of progress on the denuclearization is an obstacle to improving our relations or realizing other important goals of the 2005 joint statement.”

Bosworth said it remained to be seen whether the North would return to the six-party table and added, “This is something that will require further consultations among all six of us [in the six-party setting].”

Bosworth offered that the United States is prepared to cooperate with its allies to offer North Korea “a different future.”

“The path for North Korea to realize this future is to choose the door of dialogue in the six-party talks and to take irreversible steps to achieve denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” he said.

The North has been pushing for an exclusive peace treaty with the United States to replace the armistice that ended the Korean War in 1953. Bosworth said, “Once we’ve been able to reconvene the six-party process and have begun to gain significant traction on the issue of denuclearization, then I would expect that we would all be prepared to discuss the evolution or the negotiation of the peace regime of the Korean Peninsula.”

Bosworth will travel for meetings in the other six-party nations before returning home.

By Yoo Jee-ho
JoongAng Daily