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U.S. envoy unsure of N. Korea return to talks

SEOUL, South Korea — President Barack Obama’s envoy on North Korea said Thursday it remains unclear when the communist regime will return to international disarmament negotiations.

However, Stephen Bosworth said he and his North Korean counterparts reached a “common understanding” on the importance of the denuclearization process.

“It is certainly our hope, based on these discussions in Pyongyang, that the six-party talks can resume expeditiously and that we can get back to the important work of denuclearization,” he told a news conference in Seoul after returning from North Korea.

The veteran diplomat’s talks in North Korea were the first high-level contact between Washington and Pyongyang since Obama took office in January pledging to reach out to former adversaries.

He said he did not request a meeting with Kim Jong Il and did not meet the reclusive North Korean leader. North Korea’s state media said Kim was traveling outside Pyongyang during the three days of Bosworth’s visit.

Bosworth characterized the discussions as “exploratory talks” rather than negotiations, and did not succeed in gaining Pyongyang’s firm commitment on returning to the disarmament talks.

However, he sounded a hopeful note, calling the visit “very useful,” and said he expected it would lead to future discussions on how to restart the disarmament process stalled for more than a year.

Six nations — the two Koreas, the U.S., Russia, Japan and China — have been negotiating since 2003 on a step-by-step process to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear program.

North Korea walked away from the process last year in anger over international criticism of its ambitions to develop long-range rocket technology, and later conducted an underground test of a nuclear bomb.

After months of rising tensions and inflammatory rhetoric, North Korea began reaching out to the U.S. and other participants in the six-party talks in recent months.