Seoul, December 08: A US envoy arrived in North Korea today to try to bring it back to nuclear disarmament negotiations, in what will be the first high-level dialogue between the Obama administration and the communist state.
Stephen Bosworth and his six-member team flew from the US air force base at Osan in South Korea for their three-day mission. Their arrival was reported by the North’s official news agency in a one-sentence dispatch.
After months of tensions marked by a North Korean nuclear test and missile launches, President Barack Obama is using his trademark direct diplomacy to attempt to bring it back to the six-nation negotiations it quit in April.
A senior US official said in Washington that Bosworth will offer no new incentives but added that the North may be more ready to re-engage than its tough public statements suggest.
–IANS