US reacts cautiously to North Korean opening on six-party talks

Oct 7, 2009, 21:46 GMT

Washington - The United States said Wednesday it was evaluating North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's call for direct talks that could lead to a resumption of negotiations on ending its nuclear programme.

But US State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said there was still no agreement on a US-North Korea meeting. Such talks would only take place if it clearly led back to the six-nation process aimed at denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.

'The intent of any meeting that may take place in coming weeks will be to test that proposition,' said US State Department spokesman PJ Crowley.

Kim said in a meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao this week that his country was willing to return to the six-party talks - which include the US, China, Russia, Japan and the two Koreas - if there was progress on bilateral talks between the US and North Korea.

'It is a different statement than North Korea has made in recent weeks or months,' Crowley said, but he added that the US was looking for a clearer signal of a change in behaviour from Pyongyang.

'We will be guided by what North Korea does, not by what North Korea says,' Crowley told reporters in Washington.

North Korea quit the six-party talks in April and carried out its second underground nuclear test in May. South Korean media reported this week that the Stalinist state was in the final stages of restoring its nuclear facility at Yongbyon, which was disabled after a previous multilateral disarmament deal in 2007.