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North Korea to return to talks after Bush address - Seoul
North Korea will likely return to six-country talks on dismantling its nuclear programs some time after US President Bush's State of the Union speech this week, South Korea's foreign minister said on Tuesday.
North Korea has said it would wait to see the shape of U.S. policy toward under the second Bush administration before deciding whether to return to the talks, which have been stalled since September.
"We expect that North Korea will participate in six-party talks at an appropriate time after the State of the Union address by President Bush and I think that would be the right thing to do," Ban Ki-moon told reporters.
There was no clear timetable yet, he said.
Bush is due to deliver the key policy address on Wednesday.
A fourth round of talks involving the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and China that were due before the end of September failed to take place.
A senior U.S. official was visiting China on Tuesday after meeting Japanese officials in Tokyo.
Michael Green, senior director for Asia on the U.S. National Security Council, was quoted as saying Washington was ready to discuss a serious proposal for the North at a new round of talks.
"We are ready to go. We have a serious proposal. And we are ready to discuss it without preconditions," Kyodo news agency quoted Green as saying on Monday.
Ban said he did not know what the new proposal was, but that Green was due to arrive in Seoul on Wednesday for consultations.
His trip comes after an extended lull since late November when, in a last-ditch effort to move the six-party process forward before the end of 2004, the countries tried to meet for an informal round of meetings. |
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