North Korea on Friday expressed its coordination with the United States as part of the efforts to resume multi-party negotiations to end the country’s nuclear programmes, reports said.
According to a statement from the communist country’s foreign ministry, North Korea said that the meetings with the US resulted in a deeper mutual understanding and also “narrowed their differences.”
The statement was the first reaction from North Korea to three-day high-level discussions with US envoy Stephen Bosworth.
In Seoul, Bosworth said that both parties arrived at a mutual agreement on the need to resume the nuclear talks.
North Korea’s reaction shows to be positive and sparks optimism that there could be resumption of the delayed disarmament process albeit failing to make a strong commitment to return to negotiations.
According to the Korean Central News Agency, both nations have “reached a series of common understandings of the need to resume the six-party talks.”
It added, “Both sides agreed to continue to cooperate with each other in the future to narrow down the remaining differences.”
However, there was no mention of what the remaining differences were.
On the other hand, Washington also echoed North Korea’s statement with US Sec. of State Hillary Clinton saying that the preliminary meeting was “quite positive,” whilst spokesman of the State Department PJ Crowley egged on the country’s solid commitment of returning to multi-party talks.
“They have to make the fundamental decision, and we did not leave the meeting today believing that they had crossed the threshold that we want to see them cross,” he was quoted by the Associated Press as saying.
Moreover, Bosworth said that the US is prepared to work with their allies in the region to offer a different future for North Korea.
