The United States is interested in talking to countries outside the existing six-nation forum about North Korea's nuclear issue but still sees the existing format as the primary track, State Department officials said Tuesday.Speaking to reporters, the officials in charge of Asia affairs said the United States is not going to abandon the six-party talks aimed at denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. The forum, involving South and North Korea, the United States, China, Russia and Japan, has been dormant since November last year due to Pyongyang's boycott.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the top U.S. negotiator at the talks, is traveling through Asia and talking to counterparts about how to revive the forum. While in Tokyo, he suggested a different track to the negotiations, such as the so-called "five-plus-five," which would bring together members of the six-party talks, except North Korea, and five other regional states.
| C'mon in, the water's fine. Bring all the kids. |
| The time for bilateral diplomacy with Kimmie is never. |
Another official said North Korea is not interested in coming back to the six-party forum, "but that doesn't mean that we don't want to talk about the problems and their (North Korean) behavior with other countries." But discussing another track of dialogue is "bit further" than what Hill said, according to the official.
| "If noone salutes we never ran it up the flag poll," he added. |