US envoy to visit NKorea next month

October 30, 2009 04:01:43 PM

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A US envoy will visit North Korea next month following a summit between President Barack Obama and his South Korean counterpart in Seoul, a newspaper reported Friday.

"Special envoy (Stephen) Bosworth will visit North Korea next month," an unnamed senior South Korean official told the independent Hankyoreh newspaper.

The trip by the special US envoy for North Korea is expected to come after a summit between Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak on November 19, it said.

The North reached a six-nation nuclear disarmament deal in 2007. But it quit the forum in April in protest at the UN Security Council's decision to censure its long-range rocket launch.

In May it staged its second nuclear test, incurring international anger and tougher UN sanctions.

On October 6 North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il told Chinese envoys that his country was willing to return to the six-party forum, but insisted it first negotiate directly with Washington to repair "hostile relations."

The US says such talks are possible, but only to bring the North back to the six-nation framework which also groups China, South Korea, Japan and Russia.

US and North Korean envoys held rare face-to-face talks in New York last week and again on Monday and Tuesday at a California forum.

But the US State Department said it has not yet decided whether to accept Pyongyang's invitation for a visit by Bosworth.