North Korea to rejoin nuclear arms talks
North Korea today said it would rejoin international nuclear arms talks, ending a more-than-year-long boycott, after North Korean and US envoys held a previously unannounced meeting in Beijing.
The six-nation talks will resume July 25, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said.
The top envoys to the negotiations from the US and North Korea – US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill and North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan – met in the Chinese capital, KCNA said.
“The US side clarified its official stand to recognise (North Korea) as a sovereign state, not to invade it and hold bilateral talks within the framework of the six-party talks,” KCNA reported.
North Korea has long demanded that Washington apologise for remarks by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, labelling it as one of the world’s “outposts of tyranny”.
North Korea today said it took Hill’s comments as “a retraction” of that earlier remark and had decided to return to the nuclear talks.
