SKorea not opposed to US-NKorea direct talks

[September 12, 2009]  SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- South Korea would not oppose the United States holding direct talks with North Korea to persuade the communist regime to rejoin stalled international nuclear disarmament negotiations, the Foreign Ministry said Saturday.

U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Friday that Washington was preparing to accept Pyongyang's offer for one-on-one talks as part of efforts to resume the six-nation negotiations.

Pyongyang pulled out of the talks with the U.S., South Korea, China, Russia and Japan in April, protesting international criticism of its launch of a rocket which the regime said was a satellite launch but which other nations suspected was a test of long-range missile technology. North Korea subsequently conducted a nuclear test that drew U.N. sanctions.

Despite agreeing to direct talks, Crowley insisted there has been no shift from previous U.S. statements that Washington would only meet with North Korea as part of the six-nation process.

Crowley told reporters that no decision has been made on when or where such a meeting would occur.

On Saturday, a spokesman at Seoul's Foreign Ministry, Moon Tae-young, said South Korea has held a position that it would not oppose direct talks between Washington and Pyongyang as long as they help promote the North's denuclearization and are held as part of the six-party process.

Some critics in South Korea have raised concerns that U.S.-North Korea talks could leave South Korea out of the main disarmament negotiations.

North Korean state media has yet to comment.

In recent weeks, North Korea has made a series of conciliatory gestures, including the release of two American journalists and five South Koreans detained there.

The U.S., however, has shown no sign of easing its pressure on the North to disarm.

[Associated Press; By HYUNG-JIN KIM]

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