Seoul, Dec 11 (DPA) Following a meeting with a US special envoy, North Korea indicated Friday that it was ready to resume mothballed international talks to end its nuclear weapons programme.
Quoting an unidentified foreign ministry spokesperson, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the meeting produced a “a series of common understandings on the need to resume the six-party talks”, which also include South Korea, Russia, Japan and China.

Both sides had “frank discussions” that led to a “mutual understanding”, the report added.

US special representative for North Korea Stephen Bosworth’s three-day trip to Pyongyang, which ended Thursday, raised hopes that the North would return to the talks which it quit in April.

Pyongyang and Washington agreed to “continue to cooperate with each other in the future to narrow down the remaining differences”, the ministry spokesperson said, but failed to give a timeframe for the Stalinist state’s return to the talks.

The North also acknowledged the importance of implementing a 2005 deal in which Pyongyang agreed to dismantle its nuclear weapons programme in exchange for substantial financial and energy aid.

“Both sides had a long, exhaustive and candid discussion on wide-ranging issues, including the conclusion of a peace agreement, the normalisation of bilateral relations, economic and energy assistance, and the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula,” KCNA quoted the spokesperson as saying.

Bosworth said Thursday in Seoul that he had held “exploratory talks, not negotiations” in Pyongyang.

Following months of rising tension on the Korean Peninsula, North Korea signalled in October it was willing to talk again, but made its return to the negotiating table dependent on the progress of direct talks with Washington.