North Korean leader Kim Jong-il said yesterday that the communist nation could return to international nuclear disarmament talks as early as next month -- ending its year-long boycott -- if it can reach an agreement with the US.
"If it is certain that the United States is respecting the North as a partner, North Korea could come to the six-party talks as early as July, but it has to be further negotiated with the United States,'' Kim was quoted as saying by South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, who met the North Korean leader yesterday in Pyongyang.
The North has boycotted six-nation nuclear talks for nearly a year, citing "hostile" US policies. The arms negotiations include China, Japan, Russia, the US and the two Koreas.
"North Korea has never given up or refused the six-party talks," Chung quoted Kim as saying.
Kim added that a 1992 declaration between the two Koreas calling for denuclearization of the peninsula remained valid.
Chung was the first top South Korean official to see the reclusive Kim in more than three years. He was leading a South Korean government delegation that has been in Pyongyang since Tuesday for anniversary celebrations of a landmark summit between Kim and former South Korean president Kim Dae-jung in June 2000 -- the first and only such talks between leaders of the Koreas that remain technically at war.
During yesterday's meeting, Kim and Chung agreed on the need to resume military talks between the two sides. They also said family reunions between relatives separated by the heavily fortified inter-Korean border -- which have been stalled for 11 months -- would be continued on Aug. 15 at North Korea's Diamond Mountain tourist resort.
North Korea will also send a government delegation to the Aug. 15 celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the Korean Peninsula's liberation from Japanese colonial rule.
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