US will not hold bilateral meetin with N Korea, says official
The United States has no intention to meet with North Korea during a regional security meeting this week unless it rejoins stalled six-nation talks on the communist country’s nuclear weapons programme, a top US official said today.
“We don’t know if (North Korea) wants to come to a six-party meeting. We are sceptical about having bilaterals with countries that are not participating (in the six-party talks),” said Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the chief US negotiator in nuclear talks.
He arrived in Kuala Lumpur this evening, ahead of the scheduled arrival of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday to take part in an annual gathering of Asian and Western powers.
The two-day Association of South-east Asian Nations Regional Forum is the region’s biggest security forum.
Among those attending are the countries in the six-party negotiations to end North Korea’s nuclear weapon programme – North and South Korea, the US, China, Japan and Russia.
North Korean foreign minister Paek Nam Sun is scheduled to attend.
“The question is whether he will come to a six-party meeting. We just don’t know,” said Hill.
He noted that the reclusive nation has been boycotting the talks since November, “so let’s see if they can come to some kind of meeting here”.
