Stephen Bosworth, the US pointman on North Korea, arrived in Pyongyang on Tuesday for the first high-level dialogue between President Barack Obama's administration and the communist state after months of tension.

North Korea in October met a key US condition by saying it was ready to return to six-nation talks on ending its nuclear program. It stormed out of the talks in April and later tested a nuclear bomb.

But Charles Pritchard, a former US negotiator with North Korea who now heads the Washington-based Korea Economic Institute, doubted after visiting Pyongyang that this week's meetings would yield a breakthrough.

A North Korean official "on a number of occasions and in a number of ways told us if Ambassador Bosworth were to come and simply and suddenly say, 'return to six-party talks,' that that in fact would be a waste of time," Pritchard told a news conference.

Pritchard said the official, Ri Gun, director general of North American affairs at the foreign ministry, instead sought talks on a peace treaty between North Korea and the United States.

North Korea never signed a peace treaty with the United States, which stations 28,500 troops in democratic South Korea. The 1950-53 Korean War ended only in an armistice, although Pyongyang said in May that it had disavowed it.

Pritchard, who was joined in Pyongyang by two colleagues, said he neither carried nor brought back formal messages during his November 21-24 visit to Pyongyang, his 10th trip to the reclusive country.

But he suspected the North Koreans considered his visit a "dry run" of how they would speak with Bosworth's six-member team.

Ri explained that North Korea needed a treaty to end the "inconsistency" in US policy between different presidential administrations, Pritchard said.

Ri argued "that they can never be certain of what the policy will be, but by moving to a peace treaty that there is an internationally legal document which will govern the relationship between the United States and North Korea," Pritchard said.

But he added: "I think this is a negotiating ploy to avoid the discussion and commitment to come to six-party talks."

earlier related report
US envoy in N.Korea in bid to end nuclear impasse
Seoul (AFP) Dec 8, 2009 - A US envoy arrived in North Korea Tuesday to try to coax it back to nuclear disarmament negotiations, in what will be the first high-level dialogue between the Obama administration and the communist state.

After a year of tensions marked by a North Korean nuclear test and missile launches, President Barack Obama is using his trademark direct diplomacy to attempt to bring it back to the six-nation negotiations it quit in April.

Stephen Bosworth and his six-member team flew from the US air force base at Osan in South Korea for their three-day mission. Their arrival was reported by the North's official news agency in a one-sentence dispatch.

A senior US official said in Washington that Bosworth will offer no new incentives but added that the North may be more ready to re-engage than its tough public statements suggest.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she hopes Pyongyang can be persuaded to return to the six-party talks, to work towards denuclearisation and towards "a new set of relationships with us and our partners".

Bosworth, a veteran diplomat who is now the US special envoy on North Korea, is expected to hold talks with first vice foreign minister Kang Sok-Ju. But Seoul officials say he is unlikely to meet leader Kim Jong-Il.

He is scheduled to return Thursday to Seoul to brief officials before going on to Beijing on Friday, Tokyo on Saturday and Moscow on Sunday.

The tortuous disarmament talks began under Obama's predecessor George W. Bush in 2003 and group the two Koreas, the United States, China, Russia and Japan.

In the six years since, there has been a pattern of apparent breakthroughs followed by breakdowns amid mutual accusations of bad faith particularly between the United States and North Korea.

In April, stung by international censure of its long-range rocket launch, the North declared the talks "dead".

It staged its second nuclear test the following month and followed up with a series of missile launches, attracting tougher UN sanctions.

In August, as former president Bill Clinton visited Pyongyang to secure the release of two US journalists, the North began striking a softer note.

It told visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in October it is ready to return to the six-nation talks, but only if direct discussions with the United States prove satisfactory.

The senior US official said Monday there were signs the North Koreans "may be more open to re-engage in the six-party talks than their initial statement said".

But the official warned that Washington will "continue very strong enforcement" of sanctions if the North still shuns the multilateral track.

Pyongyang has long sought direct talks with Washington in preference to a multilateral approach.

It says it needs its nuclear arsenal in the face of US "hostility" and maintains that a peace deal with Washington formally ending the 1950-53 war is key to resolving the nuclear standoff.

Charles Pritchard, a former US negotiator who now heads the Washington-based Korea Economic Institute and who recently visited Pyongyang, played down expectations of any breakthough during Bosworth's trip.

He said a top North Korean official "on a number of occasions and in a number of ways told us if Ambassador Bosworth were to come and simply and suddenly say, 'return to six-party talks,' that that in fact would be a waste of time," he told reporters in Washington.

Pritchard said the official, Ri Gun, director general of North American affairs at the foreign ministry, instead sought talks on a peace treaty with the United States.

Bosworth himself and other analysts have also tried to limit expectations.

Scott Snyder, director of the Centre for US-North Korea Policy at the Asia Foundation, forecast a "difficult conversation" because the North wants to be treated as a nuclear power after its second test.

Washington insists this will never happen.

China expressed hope the trip would restart the talks that it hosts.

"(China) supports US-North Korea contact and dialogue. We hope this dialogue can be conducive to their mutual understanding and resolve their mutual concerns," said foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu.

"We also hope the dialogue can be conducive to the resumption of six-party talks."

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