By RIA Novosti,
Tokyo : Washington may consider bilateral talks with N. Korea in the future, but not as a substitute for six-party talks on the country’s nuclear disarmament, the U.S. special envoy on North Korea said on Tuesday.
“We do not consider any way that bilateral engagement is a substitute for multilateral engagement,” Bosworth said in Tokyo prior to his return from a three-stop Asian tour aimed at re-launching negotiations with Pyongyang on ending its nuclear program.
The communist state quit the talks and announced the restart of its nuclear program after the UN Security Council condemned its April 5 long-range missile launch. The Security Council imposed tougher sanctions on the North after it conducted its second nuclear test in May.
North Korea has also expelled IAEA and U.S. nuclear inspectors involved in monitoring the country’s nuclear disablement process.
Pyongyang has in recent months maintained it will only discuss its nuclear program with Washington.
Washington has been unresponsive to Pyongyang’s request so far, demanding the North return to the international talks involving the two Koreas, Russia, China, Japan and the United States.
The last round of six-nation talks took place in Beijing in December 2008.