NKorea calling for new nuclear talks

NEW MEXICO: North Korea is calling for new nuclear talks but wants them directly with the United States, Governor Bill Richardson said Wednesday after a rare meeting with diplomats sent by Pyongyang.

"We had productive talks," Richardson said. "I got a sense that temperatures have really cooled down since President Clinton's visit. "The delegation indicated that North Korea is ready for a new dialogue with the United States regarding the nuclear issue," he said in a statement issued half-way through two days of talks in New Mexico.

"The question is whether to proceed with face-to-face bilateral talks, as the North Koreans prefer, or to utilize the six-party framework that the United States has advocated. The North Koreans clearly want bilateral talks and not the six-party framework."

Pyongyang abandoned six-party talks and vowed to restart its plutonium-producing program in April after a censure from the UN Security Council for testing a long-range rocket. It went on to stage its second nuclear test on May 25.

The United States has refused bilateral talks with North Korea, saying negotations are possible only within the context of the six-party forum grouping the two Koreas, China, Russia, the United States and Japan. Santa Fe, Thursday, AFP