Envoy in bid to restart nuke talks
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. State Department has announced it is sending a top official to three Asian countries next week in hopes of restarting stalled talks aimed at persuading North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.
Christopher Hill, assistant secretary of state for East Asian affairs, is to visit Japan, South Korea and China in an effort to revive the six-party talks, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said.
Those talks began in 2003, with Russia, China, the United States, Japan and South Korea unsuccessfully attempting to persuade North Korea to abandon efforts to develop nuclear weapons.
A planned fourth round of talks was canceled in September when North Korea refused to attend, citing a 'hostile" U.S. policy towards it.
In March, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Washington would not let the standoff over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program "go on forever."
The issue could be referred to the U.N. Security Council, but Ereli said it would be premature to speculate about any approaches other than the six-party talks.
"From the point of view of the United States, our position really hasn't changed -- and that position is that we remain focused on getting six-party talks restarted," he said. "That is our immediate objective."
In February, Pyongyang declared it had nuclear weapons and would continue its boycott indefinitely unless Washington agreed to one-on-one talks.
The Bush administration has refused, arguing that the issue affects the entire region and therefore the other parties should be included.
