hankyoreh

The U.S. State Department denied Wednesday that its top nuclear envoy had tried to contact North Korea during his Asia visit but was rebuffed.

Department spokesman Sean McCormack said "somewhere along the line there was a garble there," responding to such press reports.

"I think what he did was... say that he'd be willing to have as many meetings as the North Koreans could take in the context of the six-party talks," McCormack said, reminding that it was Pyongyang who refuses to return to the dialogue table.

Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill traveled through Asia earlier this month, stopping in China, Japan and South Korea, three of the members to the six-party talks. Russia and North Korea are also involved in the negotiations aimed at denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.

After an agreement a year ago in which Pyongyang agreed to give up its nuclear weapons and programs in return for an array of incentives provided by other parties, the multilateral forum has not resumed since a brief session in November.

North Korea insists the U.S. Treasury must first lift "sanctions" imposed on a Macau bank, accused of laundering money Pyongyang accrues through illicit financial activities, for it to come back to the talks.

Hill had been invited twice to Pyongyang but never got the go-ahead. The U.S. maintains that any contact with the North would have to be within the context of the six-party forum.

Press reports out of Seoul quoting officials there said Hill had tried to bring his North Korean counterpart, Kim Gye-kwan, to Beijing for a one-on-one meeting but Pyongyang did not respond.

Yu Myung-hwan, South Korean vice foreign minister, had said that Hill made a "gesture on his own initiative" but did not give details.

At the White House, spokesman Tony Snow reiterated that Pyongyang must return to the six-nation talks.

"We have said you need to get back to the table. There are incentives awaiting the government if it behaves well," he said at the daily briefing.
Washington, Sept. 13 (Yonhap News)