Former U.N. envoy Bill Richardson holds more rare meetings on Thursday
with a delegation from North Korea, which he said is pushing for
one-on-one talks with the United States.
Long-time U.S. policy has been to deny North Korea bilateral
talks and only discuss the hermit state's nuclear program in a
six-nation forum consisting of the two Koreas, China, Russia, the
United States and Japan.
Richardson said he was hearing from the North Korean
delegation that Pyongyang believed its decision earlier this month to
release two U.S. reporters to former president Bill Clinton merited a
change of heart from Washington.
"We had productive talks," he said halfway through
Wednesday's discussions. "I got a sense that temperatures have really
cooled down since president Clinton's visit.
"The North Koreans obviously used the journalists as a
bargaining chip and now they want a gesture in return. What I believe
they want in return is, all right, the U.S. is now ready to talk to us
directly."
Pyongyang abandoned six-party talks and vowed to restart its
plutonium-producing program in April after a censure from the U.N.
Security Council for testing a long-range rocket. It went on to stage
its second nuclear test on May 25.
"The delegation indicated that North Korea is ready for a
new dialogue with the United States regarding the nuclear issue,"
Richardson said Wednesday.
"The question is whether to proceed with face-to-face
bilateral talks, as the North Koreans prefer, or to utilize the
six-party framework that the United States has advocated. The North
Koreans clearly want bilateral talks and not the six-party framework."
Richardson, who met with North Korean delegates Kim Myong
Gil and Paek Jong Ho at his sprawling hacienda overlooking Santa Fe,
was upbeat despite U.S. intransigence in the past on the matter of
face-to-face talks.
"I detected for the first time... a lessening of tension, some positive vibrations.
"They're leaving it up to the U.S. on who should they talk to.
They didn't place any conditions, and that's good news," he said.
In a statement ahead of the meetings Thursday, Richardson's
spokesman said the North Korean diplomats will hear from state experts
on clean energy initiatives.
The briefings at Santa Fe Community College will concern
sustainable technologies, including wind energy and solar panel
technology, said the governor's office.
The White House stated clearly that the North Korean mission
to New Mexico had not come at the behest of the Obama administration.
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said no message had
been passed to Richardson to give to the North Koreans and reiterated
Washington's long-standing policy on North Korea.
"Our goal is very simple and very clear. Our goal is the
denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. And, of course, we want to
see progress toward that."
Clinton's historic August 4 meeting with reclusive North
Korean leader Kim Jong Il was the highest-level contact in a decade and
brought to an end months of simmering tension and escalating rhetoric.
In another possible sign of a change of attitude in
Pyongyang, the North has warmed in recent days to South Korea after
months of hostility, making a surprise offer to relaunch cross-border
tours and allow reunions of divided families.
The two Koreas remain technically at war since their 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.
More than 600,000 South Korean soldiers, backed by 28,500 U.S.
troops, are deployed in the southern part of the peninsula, confronting
a potential threat from the North's 1.1 million-strong military.
Kim and Paek, delegates from North Korea's mission to the
United Nations, were granted special permission to visit Richardson as
ordinarily they cannot go beyond a 25-mile (40-kilometer) radius of New
York City.
The pair, who had dinner with Richardson on Tuesday evening,
will meet briefly with the governor again on Thursday after several
hours of discussions on the first day of talks, aides said.
Richardson traveled twice to North Korea in the 1990s to
secure the release of U.S. prisoners and was last there in April 2007
to bring back the remains of American servicemen killed during the
Korean War.
A veteran Democrat, Richardson served as U.S. ambassador to
the United Nations and energy secretary under Clinton. The prominent
Hispanic politician also made a failed bid for the presidency in 2008.