U.S. 'ready to talk' with N. Korea
From CNN State Department Producer Elise Labott
 |  Efforts to get Kim back to the negotiating table have taken on a new sense of urgency. |
| |
|  VIDEO |
 China aims to bring North Korea to the negotiating table.
 Bush administration officials refuse one-on-one talks with N. Korea
 U.S. closely watches China's expanding military force.
|
|
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States and other parties in the six-party talks over North Korea's nuclear program are "ready to return to the table at an early date and without preconditions," U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Tuesday.
"It's only North Korea that claims current conditions are unfavorable" for talks, Boucher said.
"For our part, the United States stands ready to return to the talks to discuss the proposals that have been on the table since June."
North Korea's state news agency announced Tuesday that leader Kim Jong Il was willing to resume talks with his country's neighbors and the United States if Washington "would show trustworthy sincerity."
"We will go to the negotiating table anytime if there are mature conditions for the six-party talks thanks to the concerted efforts of the parties concerned in the future," the state news agency KCNA quoted Kim as saying.
The agency said Pyongyang "would as ever stand for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and its position to seek a peaceful solution to the issue through dialogue remains unchanged."
A senior U.S. State Department official said Tuesday that despite Pyongyang's statements, "it's what they do that matters."
"It's time for them to show up and get down to business," this official said.
The six-party talks include North and South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.
North Korea announced February 10 that it would withdraw from the talks and declared for the first time that it possessed nuclear weapons, blaming a hostile U.S. stance for the impasse.
It said Tuesday that its government "has never opposed the six-party talks but made every possible effort for their success."
North Korea's announcement came as a top Chinese envoy, Wang Jiarui, arrived in Pyongyang for further talks related to the two-year-old standoff.
Wang told Kim that Beijing wanted to ensure that Pyongyang's "reasonable concerns are given serious consideration," KCNA reported.
Boucher said U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke Tuesday with China's foreign minister about Wang's visit to Pyongyang, and the administration would be having additional discussions on the visit.
The six nations have held three rounds of talks aimed at persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons development in return for economic and diplomatic rewards.
A fourth round of talks scheduled for September last year did not take place when North Korea refused to attend, citing what it called a "hostile" U.S. policy.
North Korea has said it wants security guarantees from the United States.
The two nations never signed a peace agreement after the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War, and the border between North Korea and South Korea remains the most heavily fortified in the world.
On Saturday, U.S. and Japanese officials issued a joint statement calling North Korea's nuclear program "a direct threat to the peace and stability" of Asia.
"We share a concern about events on the Korean Peninsula," Secretary Rice said after the meetings.
North Korea responded the following day by accusing Japan of aspiring to rule a "Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere" beginning with an invasion of Korea with the assistance of the United States. (U.S., Japan 'plotting invasion')
