SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said on Monday that it was open to a form of dialogue to help resolve the dispute with the United States over its nuclear weapons program — but not to six-nation talks involving other regional powers.
The statement, from North Korea’s Foreign Ministry, was seen as an unusually conciliatory-sounding expression of willingness to engage the United States in direct, one-on-one talks — a longstanding North Korean preference.
The statement followed remarks over the weekend by Sin Son-ho, the top North Korean diplomat at the United Nations, who said his government was “not against a dialogue” with Washington.
North Korea’s suggestion appeared to brighten the prospects for dialogue between Pyongyang and Washington after months of tensions punctuated by the North’s long-range rocket launching in April and its second nuclear test in May.
There was no immediate reaction from Washington to the North Korean Foreign Ministry’s statement on Monday. The Obama administration has indicated that it is willing to engage the North in direct talks, but only if the North agrees to return to six-nation talks, a position reiterated over the weekend by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who just completed a visit to Asia. Those talks also include South Korea, China, Japan and Russia.
The North Korean Foreign Ministry’s statement said the six-party talks were dead the moment that member countries agreed to the international sanctions that the United Nations Security Council imposed on North Korea following the May 25 nuclear test. The North has said those sanctions violate its sovereignty.
But the ministry’s statement on Monday added, “There is a specific and reserved form of dialogue that can address the current situation.”
North Korea has said the purpose of the six-nation talks was to “disarm and incapacitate” it.
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