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US Not Yet Made Decision on Bosworth’s Pyongyang Trip: US DOS
BY HWANG DOO HYONG, Yonhap News
Washington — The United States said Wednesday it has not yet made any decision on whether to accept North Korea’s proposal for the U.S. point man on North Korea to visit Pyongyang on its nuclear weapons programs.
“We have received communication from North Korea, and we have discussed this invitation and the way forward with our partners in this, with our multilateral partners,” State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said. “But as Secretary Clinton said, no decisions have been made whether or not to accept that invitation.”
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il extended the invitation to Stephen Bosworth, special representative for North Korea policy, early last month when former U.S. President Bill Clinton visited Pyongyang to meet him over the release of two American journalists held there for illegal entry.
North Korea also extended an open invitation to Sen. John Kerry (D-Ma) last month, according to an aide to the senator, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Kerry has no immediate plans for a Pyongyang visit, the aide said.
Reports have said that Bosworth will visit Pyongyang in late October or early November.
Kelly said that the Barack Obama administration will have a bilateral dialogue only within the six-party talks on the North’s denuclearization. Those also involve South Korea, China, Russia and Japan.
“Any bilateral talks would have to be in the context of our multilateral forum that we have put all of our faith into, the six-party talks,” the spokesman said. “Our focus is on restarting this multilateral context. And our goal, of course, is the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”
North Korea has refused to attend the multilateral negotiations, citing international sanctions on the impoverished communist state for its nuclear and missile tests earlier this year, insisting on having bilateral talks with the U.S. for a breakthrough.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hinted Tuesday that she may send Bosworth to Pyongyang sooner or later.
“We are in the process of exploring that with our partners, but we are totally unified,” she said. “The United States is not acting in any way that is not part of an agreed-upon process that has been worked out with the six-party members. But they also recognize that one of the ways we perhaps can get North Korea to engage is by explaining, directly and clearly, what the purpose is and what the possible consequences and incentives could be.”
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