US envoy to North Korea to push nuclear talks
Wednesday, 9 December 2009
SEOUL (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's first envoy to North Korea arrived in Pyongyang on Tuesday to try to coax the prickly state back to the nuclear talks it quit a year ago, but without offering it any new incentives.
Stephen Bosworth is scheduled to stay for three days and meet top North Korean officials, but not leader Kim Jong-il, for talks analysts see likely to lead to a pledge from Pyongyang to end its boycott of nuclear discussions but not to breakthroughs.
A senior US official said Bosworth wanted to assess whether the North really planned to return to negotiations and abide by a four-year-old pledge to give up building an atomic arsenal in return for massive aid and security guarantees.
Bosworth flew from an airbase near Seoul and landed at an airport on the outskirts of Pyongyang with his delegation, a one-line dispatch by the North's official KCNA news agency said.
Stephen Bosworth is scheduled to stay for three days and meet top North Korean officials, but not leader Kim Jong-il, for talks analysts see likely to lead to a pledge from Pyongyang to end its boycott of nuclear discussions but not to breakthroughs.
A senior US official said Bosworth wanted to assess whether the North really planned to return to negotiations and abide by a four-year-old pledge to give up building an atomic arsenal in return for massive aid and security guarantees.
Bosworth flew from an airbase near Seoul and landed at an airport on the outskirts of Pyongyang with his delegation, a one-line dispatch by the North's official KCNA news agency said.