US, North Korea resume discussions on reviving nuclear talks

Jul 29, 2011, 14:51 GMT

New York - US and North Korean diplomats on Friday resumed discussions aimed at establishing whether the government in Pyongyang intends to return to the six-party nuclear talks deadlocked since 2008.

The North Korean delegation headed by Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwon arrived at the US Mission to the United Nations in New York for the second day of discussion. His counterpart is the US special envoy for North Korea, Stephen Bosworth.

The United States and North Korea have failed to establish diplomatic ties since the end of the Korean War in 1953, in which the US led an international force against China-backed North Korean troops.

The Korean War ended without a peace treaty. Pyongyang is now demanding that Washington agree to one before resolving other problems on the Korean peninsula, including the nuclear dispute.

US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in Washington on Thursday, after the first day of meeting, that the discussions were 'exploratory' and meant to see whether North Korea is serious about returning to the six-nation talks and making progress and living up to a 2005 nuclear disarmament agreement.

Pyongyang 'needs to take concrete steps towards denuclearization,' Toner told reporters in Washington.

The six-party talks to resolve North Korea's nuclear programme involved the United States, Russia, China, Japan and North and South Korea, and have been deadlocked since 2008.

The North Korean delegation was invited to the US by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in an effort to break the stalemate over the nuclear dispute.