`N. Korea agreed to discuss uranium`

Pyongyang agreed to discuss its uranium-based nuclear program in future six-party talks, U.S. special representative for North Korea policy Stephen Bosworth said.

"It clearly will be on the agenda when the talks resume," he said Wednesday in Washington during a press briefing on his trip to Pyongyang last week.

"North Korea put it there by making a public announcement that they had concluded the first experimental phase of the uranium enrichment program."

North Korea said in a letter to the United Nations Security Council in September that it has entered the final stage of uranium enrichment, another means to make nuclear weapons other than the plutonium program, and is building more nuclear weapons with spent fuel rods extracted from its plutonium-producing reactor.



Bosworth carried U.S. President Barack Obama`s letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il last week, but did not bring back a return letter from Kim.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs and U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly confirmed that Bosworth delivered Obama`s letter to Pyongyang.

"The president`s letter to the North Koreans coincided with and was delivered by Mr. Bosworth, who was there to get the North Koreans ... to convince them to do what is in their interest, and that`s come back to the table and ultimately live up to the agreements they signed to give up and to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula," Gibbs said.

Kelly said, "I can only confirm there was such a letter, but I cannot discuss the content or the tone."

Bosworth said he did not bring back a return letter from Kim, adding, "I did not ask to meet with him, and I did not meet with him."

The U.S. diplomat said he conveyed "very directly to the North Korean leadership a vision for the future which would be a lot different than the present or the past, and ways in which we could improve both our bilateral relationship and improve North Korea`s overall relationships within Northeast Asia."

On the reports that he has agreed to North Korea`s demand that they have four-party talks on forging a peace treaty to replace the fragile armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War, Bosworth said, "Obviously, only four of the countries would be directly involved in a peace treaty negotiation, and that`s well understood by all parties."

The U.S. point man on North Korea said he expects the six-party talks to resume sooner or later.

Until the nuclear talks resume and the North takes substantial steps for denuclearization, the United States will continue sanctions on North Korea, he said.

As for the cargo plane impounded in Bangkok Saturday while carrying 35 tons of North Korean weapons to an unknown destination, Bosworth said it was "a good example of why sanctions are effective and the importance of sanctions."

"This process will play out within the procedures of the United Nations. It will go to the sanctions committee, et cetera."

Thailand last week impounded the plane carrying weapons from North Korea, citing a United Nations resolution passed in June to punish the regime in Pyongyang for conducting a second nuclear test earlier in May. A Thai court approved a 12-day detention for five crew members.

(sophie@heraldm.com)







By Kim So-hyun and news reports