Seoul, September 16 (Yonhap) — The U.S.-North Korea bilateral talks, aimed at bringing the communist country back to the multilateral nuclear negotiations, could be held as early as late October, a senior diplomatic source said Wednesday, adding the two countries were negotiating the time frame.

The source said Stephen Bosworth, the U.S. special special representative on North Korea policy, will most likely visit Pyongyang, accepting the invitation from the North. The U.S. is expecting Bosworth to talk with the North’s Vice Foreign Minister Kang Sok-ju, he said.

The U.S. announced last week that it will soon undertake bilateral negotiations with North Korea to persuade it to return to the suspended six-party talks which Pyongyang boycotted, claiming the forum was being used to infringe upon its sovereign right to develop nuclear and space technology.

Pyongyang had demanded one-on-one dealings with Washington in seeking a breakthrough, while Washington insisted on sticking to the six-party process that also involves South Korea, China, Japan and Russia.

“We expect the talks to happen between late October and early November,” the source said, requesting to be unnamed.

The source said he was aware that the two countries were communicating through diplomatic channels in New York to hammer out the details and the formalities of the pending meeting.

Not having normalized relations, Washington and Pyongyang commonly use their missions to the United Nations as a contact point.

“The U.S. is currently conducting an internal review on ways to bring back the North to the six-party talks without losing face while avoiding direct nuclear negotiations,” the source said.

Yonhap News