US, NKorea nuclear envoys set to meet

BEIJING (AP) — U.S. and North Korea envoys reopen nuclear talks Thursday, seeking ways for Pyongyang to dismantle its nuclear programs in return for much-needed aid.

The countries were on the verge of a deal to have Washington provide food if Pyongyang suspends its uranium enrichment program when the agreement was upended by the death of the country's longtime leader Kim Jong Il on Dec. 17.

"Today is, as we say, 'Game day.' We will have an opportunity to meet with First Vice Foreign Minister Kim and his team," U.S. envoy Glyn Davies said before the start of morning talks with Kim Kye Gwan at the North Korean Embassy in Beijing.

The two will hold a second session Thursday afternoon at the U.S. Embassy.

Davies said it was a good sign that North Korea had agreed to re-enter talks so soon after the death of Kim Jong Il as the country transfers power to his young son, Kim Jong Un, and a coterie of advisers.

He said a key point was to see if North Korea was willing to fulfill obligations made in a joint statement in September 2005, which committed North Korea to abandoning its nuclear program in exchange for aid and pledges that Washington wouldn't seek the regime's ouster.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in Washington that the United States was "cautiously optimistic" about the talks.

The talks in Beijing, the third round since July, ostensibly are aimed at restarting wider six-nation disarmament negotiations that also involve China, Japan, Russia and South Korea. Pyongyang walked away from those talks in 2009 and later exploded its second nuclear device.

The six-nation talks, once restarted, would be aimed at dismantling North Korea's remaining nuclear programs in exchange for what would likely involve even greater donations of aid.

Toner said food assistance would be discussed in the talks, but that the United States has some concerns it wants North Korea to address. He did not say what those concerns were, but analysts have said North Korea must agree to have U.N. watchdogs monitor any freeze of its uranium enrichment. Otherwise it could backtrack — as it has done with previous agreements.

Worries about North Korea's nuclear capability took on renewed urgency in November 2010 when the country disclosed a uranium enrichment facility that could give it a second route to manufacture nuclear weapons, in addition to its existing plutonium-based program.