U.S. Nuclear Envoy in North Korea

Stephen W. Bosworth spoke about his recent trip to Pyongyang.

http://www.isria.com/pages/10_December_2009_180.php

U.S. Envoy Bosworth arrives in Seoul, wrapping up Pyongyang trip

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/10/content_12623127.htm

Bosworth concludes Pyongyang trip, says talks "useful"

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/10/content_12622697.htm

Stephen Bosworth to begin mission

사진출처 http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/09/content_12614023.htm에서 capture

qRotZk-g68c&hl=ko_KR&fs=1&

3N2BkmjB2xM&hl=ko_KR&fs=1&

Top U.S. envoy heads to North Korea

Bosworth (center) arrives in Seoul on Sunday. Reuters

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/12/07/nkorea/

After his DPRK trip, Bosworth is expected to brief other participants of the Six-Party Talks. He will fly to Seoul on Thursday, Beijing on Friday, Tokyo on Saturday and Moscow on Sunday.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2009-12/08/content_9134677.htm

US North Korea envoy Stephen Bosworth to begin mission

The US special representative to North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, is preparing to travel to Pyongyang for three days of talks.

The visit is the first high-level contact between US President Barack Obama's administration and Pyongyang.

US officials said Mr Bosworth would try to find out whether Pyongyang was ready to return to the six-party talks on its nuclear programme it left in April.

But they said Pyongyang would not be offered any new incentives to do so.

North Korea has been pushing for direct talks with the US.

But US has said it would hold bilateral talks only as a precursor to a return to six-party negotiations.

A senior White House official said Mr Bosworth's first visit to North Korea was "not intended to be an extended bilateral engagement".

"The purpose of their mission is to determine whether the North Koreans are ready and willing to return to the six-party talks and return to a serious discussion of the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula," the AFP news agency quoted the unnamed official as saying.

'No rewards'

The official told reporters at a news conference in Washington DC that Mr Bosworth was "definitely not carrying any additional inducements" to encourage them to return to the talks.

We don't intend to reward North Korea simply for going back to doing something that it had previously committed to do," he said.

North Korea pulled out of the talks in April, after the UN Security Council condemned its testing of long range missiles.

Mr Bosworth is due to hold talks with North Korea's top leaders but it remains unclear whether he will meet the country's leader, Kim Jong-il.

Analysts have dampened expectations ahead of the visit, suggesting the most that can be hoped for is a general promise that the North would return to talks sometime

But the BBC's Michael Bristow in Seoul says that despite the pessimism, the visit itself is a mark of progress.

North Korea had said it would never return to the talks, but there is a chance the meeting with Mr Bosworth could persuade them to start talking again, says our correspondent.

On a recent visit to Beijing, South Korea and Japan, Barack Obama and his hosts all affirmed the importance of getting North Korea back into talks.

Mr Bosworth's first talks with North Korea are expected to last three days. He will then make stops in Seoul, Beijing, Tokyo and Moscow before returning to the US.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8400739.stm