Reply #8: U.S. Envoy Met With North Korean Officials at U.N.

[chlamor]

U.S. Envoy Met With North Korean Officials at U.N.

By Glenn Kessler and Anthony Faiola
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, May 20, 2005; A14

After a public appeal from North Korea, a State Department envoy met with North Korean officials at the United Nations last week to reiterate Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's recent statement that the Bush administration recognizes the reclusive country's sovereignty, U.S. officials said yesterday.

The secret meeting, the first such back-channel communication in five months, was a U.S. attempt to prod North Korea back to six-nation disarmament talks, after similar efforts by such allies as China and South Korea. The North Korean officials did not respond, except to say they would pass the message to leaders in Pyongyang, the capital, but North Korea appeared to dismiss the rare direct assurances.

"U.S. recognition of sovereignty is fake," the official KCNA news service quoted a North Korean Foreign Ministry official as saying.

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Rice sent Ambassador Joseph R. DeTrani, the U.S. special envoy to North Korea on disarmament talks, to New York last Friday after officials in Pyongyang indicated in a statement they wanted to set up a meeting with U.S. officials to confirm the U.S. position, a senior administration official familiar with the talks said. KCNA hinted that Pyongyang might be willing to return to the negotiating table if it could determine whether Rice's recent statements were sincere.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/19/AR2005051900332_pf.html