Contradictory media reports surfaced beginning yesterday over whether U.S. special envoy Stephen Bosworth is scheduled to travel to Pyongyang for bilateral nuclear negotiations with North Korea (see GSN, Oct. 29).
The South Korean newspaper Hankyoreh reported that Bosworth is expected to visit North Korea following a Nov. 19 meeting in Seoul between U.S. President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, Agence France-Presse reported.
"Special envoy Bosworth will visit North Korea next month," a source in Seoul told the newspaper (Agence France-Presse I/Google News, Oct. 30).
However, a State Department official said that there are yet no plans for Bosworth to go to North Korea for bilateral talks.
Washington has said that such talks must lead directly to resumption of six-nation talks aimed at permanently shutting down the North's nuclear operations.
North Korea's deputy nuclear negotiator, Ri Gun, twice over the last week with U.S. negotiator Sung Kim.
"There was no agreement for a specific bilateral meeting and no agreement to make any announcement of that sort either," said State Department spokesman Ian Kelly, quoting from Kim's description of his meetings with Ri in New York and San Diego (Reuters, Oct. 29).
"That doesn't mean that there's no progress being made," Kelly said, according to the Yonhap News Agency (Hwang Doo-hyong, Yonhap News Agency, Oct. 29).
In Tokyo, Japan's governing coalition introduced a bill today that would give its coast guard and customs officials the authority to interdict any North Korean ships that are believed to be carrying nuclear weapons or missile materials, AFP reported (see GSN, Oct. 22).
The bill is intended to allow Japan to carry out actions called for by a U.N. Security Council resolution enacted after the North conducted its second nuclear test in May (Agence France-Presse II/Google News, Oct. 30).