NORTH KOREA: Spurred by fears of a possible North Korean nuclear test, the United States and its Asian allies have stepped up a diplomatic offensive to bring the Pyongyang government back to stalled disarmament talks, although analysts say the effort has yet to show any signs of yielding results.
With tensions rising in east Asia as North Korea refuses to return to talks aimed at dismantling its nuclear weapons programmes, US officials held a meeting last Friday with North Korean diplomats in New York, US officials have confirmed.
White House spokesman Trent Duffy told reporters travelling with President George Bush to Milwaukee that the two countries had "working-level contacts" last week in New York, where North Korea has a representative office at the United Nations.
"This channel was used to reiterate the message directly that the North Koreans need to return to the six-party talks without conditions." He said there had not been a response.
US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice decided to send envoy Joseph DeTrani to New York last Friday after Pyongyang indicated in a statement last week that it wanted to hear directly from Washington, a senior administration official familiar with the talks said.
North Korea's official KCNA news service has hinted that Pyongyang might be willing to return to the negotiating table if it could determine the validity of recent statements by Ms Rice.
At the meeting, Mr DeTrani repeated those statements, that the United States recognised North Korea as a sovereign state, that it has no intention of attacking or invading and that Washington would agree to have "direct contacts" with North Korea during six-nation talks, the official said.
Direct contacts is a euphemism for bilateral talks which have taken place in each round of the six-party talks. The participants in the six-party talks are the United States, China, Russia, Japan and North and South Korea. Washington has refused to hold direct talks with Pyongyang outside the six-nation framework.
The official said the North Koreans listened to Mr DeTrani's statement and said they would send it to Pyongyang and relay a response.
On several occasions Washington has held so-called "backdoor" meetings with North Korean diplomats in New York but the conversation last Friday marked the first in six months.
Analysts described it as a sign that Washington was beginning to respond to calls from other nations involved in the talks to be more flexible. Both US and Japanese officials have begun to talk openly about taking North Korea before the UN Security Council and imposing possible economic sanctions - a step North Korea has said they would consider "an act of war".