U.S., N. Korean Officials Again Hold N.Y. Talks
WASHINGTON — U.S. and North Korean officials met Monday in New York at the request of the North Koreans, State Department officials said, the second meeting in a month between the two countries at a time of high tensions over the communist state's refusal to return to nuclear disarmament talks.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the North Koreans had contacted U.S. officials Friday to request the meeting. McCormack could not say whether Monday's meeting was one of a series of working-level sessions that have taken place between the countries or whether it represented a breakthrough.
McCormack, speaking to reporters aboard Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's plane as she returned to Washington from a meeting of the Organization of American States in Florida, said the U.S. officials at the meeting had been in "listening mode" and had not offered the North Koreans any inducements or promises to rejoin the talks, which also include South Korea, Russia, China and Japan.
A senior Asian diplomat who had been briefed on the meeting said North Korea had not indicated whether it intended to rejoin the six-nation talks, which have been stalled for nearly a year.
"At this stage, I would not say we are more optimistic or pessimistic [about North Korea's intentions]. I don't think we will be able to draw a lot of conclusions out of the New York meeting. This is part of an ongoing dialogue," said the diplomat, who asked not to be identified.
Monday's meeting included the same U.S. and North Korean officials as a May 13 meeting, also held in New York. On the U.S. side were Joseph R. DeTrani, the chief U.S. negotiator on North Korea, along with James Foster, director of the State Department's Office of Korean Affairs.
Representing North Korea were its U.N. representative, Pak Gil Yon, and his deputy, Han Song Ryol. The four met at North Korea's mission in New York.
The U.N. mission officials are considered among the most "sophisticated and urbane" of the North Korean diplomatic corps and have often been used as a conduit for back-channel communications between Washington and Pyongyang, said Donald Gregg, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea. As head of the New York-based Korea Society, Gregg has frequently been involved in such meetings.
"I think the State Department at this stage is trying to grab any running room they have to establish a civil dialogue with the North Koreans," Gregg said. "I don't have the sense that we are headed for a big breakthrough, but the pot is boiling and there may be some slight movement."
