N.Korea invites US to nuclear talks, US says no

UNITED STATES: North Korea invited the chief U.S. envoy to stalled nuclear talks to visit Pyongyang, but Washington rejected the invitation on Thursday, saying any negotiations must be in the six-nation format.

North Korea invited Christopher Hill to directly explain whether the United States intends to implement a joint agreement in which North Korea pledged to scrap nuclear weapons programs in exchange for aid, security assurances and greater diplomatic recognition.

"If the U.S. has a true political intention to implement the joint statement we kindly invite once again the head of the U.S. side's delegation to the talks to visit Pyongyang and directly explain it to us," the North's official KCNA news agency quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying.

North Korea has long sought two-way talks with the United States outside the six-party process, an idea the Bush administration has rejected.

"The United States is not going to engage in bilateral negotiations with the government of North Korea," spokesman Tony Snow said on Thursday.

Hill, chief U.S. envoy to nuclear talks among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States, has said he is willing to directly meet North Korean officials within the context of the six-party forum and indicated a desire to meet the North's leader Kim Jong-il.

Pyongyang has refused to return to the talks since the last round in November because of a U.S. crackdown on firms suspected of aiding it in illicit financial activities.

"The U.S. will never be able to find a way of solving the issue if it is so reluctant to sit with the party directly concerned with the issue, while expressing its intention to seek a negotiated settlement of such crucial issue as the nuclear issue," KCNA said.

U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters: "North Korea really needs to return to those six-party talks so that we can move forward on implementing the September joint statement."

Washington, Friday, Reuters.