US gov't dismisses rare talks involving NK diplomats as 'Track 2' meeting
North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Han Song-ryol and the North's UN Ambassador Jang Il-hun held the two days of talks with former US nuclear negotiators Robert Gallucci and Joseph DeTrani, and Asian affairs expert Leon Sigal in Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur on Friday and Saturday.
But the US government dismissed the talks as an unofficial "Track 2" contact.
"We have seen the reporting on Track 2 meetings. Track 2 meetings are routinely held on a variety of topics around the world and occur independent of US government involvement," State Department spokeswoman Anna Richey-Allen said.
Sigal told Yonhap News that the two sides mainly discussed the North's nuclear and missile issues.
The North stuck to its stance that it wants to sign a peace treaty with the US before it stops its nuclear and missile programs. But the US side reiterated its position that scrapping the nuclear program should be put before anything else, Sigal said.
Drawing his own conclusions that there was partial progress in the informal meetings, he said he expects no official dialogue with the North to take place under the Obama administration, but that a new US government needs to reconsider policies toward the North. (Yonhap)
本文地址:http://1.zzzogryeb.bond/html/01c099956.html
版权声明
本文仅代表作者观点,不代表本站立场。
本文系作者授权发表,未经许可,不得转载。