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Report: 6-party talk may resume in February
(AP)
Updated: 2006-01-21 15:09
Six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear ambitions could resume as early as
February, Japan's Kyodo News agency reported Saturday, citing a U.S. State
Department official in Washington.
However, both the U.S. Embassy in
Beijing and the Chinese Foreign Ministry said they could not confirm the report.
China proposed the February date after Washington's top envoy to the
talks met with his North Korean counterpart in Beijing last week, Kyodo quoted
the U.S. official as saying on condition of anonymity.
"I think that
there was a suggestion. The Chinese had talked about early February," the
official said, according to Kyodo's Washington bureau.
A spokeswoman for
the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said
she had no information about the report.
An official reached by phone at
the Chinese Foreign Ministry said he had to check with other departments before
commenting on the report.
Pressure has been mounting on North Korea to
return to the talks, which have been stalled since November.
Pyongyang
has refused to return to the negotiations unless Washington ends financial
sanctions imposed over the North's alleged illegal activities.
U.S.
Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill met North Korean Vice Foreign
Minister Kim Kye Gwan in Beijing on Wednesday, in an apparent effort to relaunch
the talks.
The meeting also came one day after the North's leader, Kim
Jong Il, wrapped up a weeklong trip to China.
In Washington, U.S.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters he was not aware of an
agreement between parties to resume in February, but said the U.S. was ready to
restart as soon as possible.
"Well, if the date is in early February,
we'll be ready and we'll be there," he said at a regular media briefing.
"We would encourage, in particular, North Korea to resume the
discussions without precondition," he said.
The participants in the
talks are the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and
Russia.
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