North Korea may not be ready to hold "serious and productive" discussions with countries involved in the long-stalled talks on its nuclear programs, a top US diplomat said Friday, Seoul's Yonhap News Agency reported.
"I think the common position of all parties, including China and the US, is that we should look for an opportunity to have a substantive engagement with North Korea," Ambassador Sung Kim, the US special representative for North Korea policy, was quoted as telling reporters in Beijing.
Kim met with his Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei to discuss a range of issues including North Korea. "The question is not what we are willing to do," Kim said. "The question is whether North Koreans are ready for any serious and productive discussions on the nuclear issue." On South Korean media report that the US offered North Korea a bilateral meeting in Beijing, shortly before Kim's trip this week, Kim replied, "North Koreans are aware that I will be in Beijing. I think they understood that this will be an opportunity for a substantive dialogue on the nuclear issue," adding that there was no meeting with North Korean officials in Beijing this week.
The six-party talks -- involving South Korea, North Korea, the US, China, Russia and Japan -- have been dormant since late 2008, when Pyongyang walked out of the negotiations. Since its third nuclear test in early 2013, North Korea has called for a resumption of the six-party talks without preconditions, but South Korea and the US have urged Pyongyang to take actions demonstrating a willingness to fulfill its denuclearization commitments.