US, North Korea to meet for first time since Kim's death

Feb 14, 2012, 3:37 GMT

Washington - The United States plans to meet next week with North Korea on its nuclear programme for the first time since the change of leader in Pyongyang in December, the State Department said.

The United States would use the February 23 meeting in Beijing to gauge the new regime's stance towards US diplomacy and a return to six-nation talks aimed at dismantling its nuclear weapons programme, department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Monday.

The talks are being held 'to see if it is prepared ... to take concrete steps towards denuclearization' and fulfil commitments it made in a 2005 agreement in which it pledged to give up its atomic programme in return for economic and diplomatic incentives, Nuland said.

The talks would be the third since the summer between the two ideological and Korean War foes. The first was held in July in New York and the second in October in Geneva. They ended without any apparent progress.

The talks were placed on hold when North Korean leader Kim Jong Il died in December, when his son Kim Jong Un was named his successor and as the US was reportedly prepared to offer food aid to jump-start the nuclear talks.

The talks, stalled since late 2008, involve North and South Korea, the US, China, Japan and Russia.

The US announcement coincided with the arrival Monday in Washington of Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, who was expected to become the next leader of China. China, one of North Korea's only allies, has hosted the nuclear talks.

Kim Jong Un is believed to be in his late 20s and had little time to prepare to succeed his father. North Korea has given scant indication of how is would respond to nuclear overtures since he took power, but a day after the official mourning period for Kim Jong Il ended, it told 'foolish politicians around the world' 'should not expect any change from us.'

Glyn Davies, US special representative for North Korea, is to lead the interagency US team at next week's talks. First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan is to head the North Korean delegation.

'We thought that it was a good time to see where they are,' Nuland said.

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