North Korea Weighs Return to Nuke Talks

Depends on meeting with US, Kim Jong Il tells China premier
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Oct 5, 2009 7:14 PM CDT
North Korea Weighs Return to Nuke Talks
In this photo released by the official Xinhua news agency, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, right, shakes hands with Kim Jong Il, leader of North Korea, today.   (AP Photo)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il told China's premier today that the North was prepared to return to multi-nation disarmament talks depending on progress in its two-way negotiations with the US. Kim's comments were the clearest sign yet that Pyongyang was readying to resume the six-nation talks it withdrew from after conducting missile tests in April and a nuclear test in May.

Kim said North Korea "is willing to attend multilateral talks, including the six-party talks, depending on the progress in its talks with the United States," China's Xinhua News Agency reported. In the North's Korean Central News Agency version,Kim told Wen Jiabao that denuclearization remained a goal and that historically hostile relations with the US "should be converted into peaceful ties through bilateral talks without fail." (More North Korea stories.)

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