国际英语新闻：U.S., South Korea agree six-party forum for nuke talks with DPRK

NEW YORK, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan of the Republic of Korea agreed at discussions in New York on Monday to retain the six-party format for any talks involving the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) focusing on nuclear issues.

    "We had another very strong meeting between the United States and South Korea," Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific, told reporters after the hour-long session on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly annual debate.

    "I think at the top of the list was the desire of both countries to remain in very close contact when it comes to North Korea," he said. "We agreed on several principles that will guide our work together over the course of the coming months."

    One of those was the reaction to Pyongyang's proposal for bilateral talks with Washington, something long opposed by the United States.

    But Campbell did not rule out the possibility of such discussions within the framework of the China, DPRK, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States talks.

    "There have been a series of interactions between the United States and its partners in the six-party framework," he said, referring to meetings U.S. Ambassador Stephen Bosworth, special representative for the DPRK policy, has been having in the respective capitals, winding up last week.

    "The essential focus from each of our partners is this, that it is essential that we return to a six-party framework and that we will encourage strongly North Korea interlocutors to accept that reality," the assistant secretary said, who himself returned only Sunday night from Japan.

    "Interestingly enough, the country that has been the clearest and firmest about this is probably China, about the fact that all of our previous engagements with North Korea, our previous understandings have been imbedded in the six party framework, (in)2005 and 2007 agreements," he said.

    "There's a recognition that should the United States in the near future decide to have some bilateral interactions with North Korea, they are as part of a process to get back to a six-party framework," he added.

    Campbell also said another top issue the two foreign ministers discussed at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel here, a few blocks from the UN Headquarters on the East River, was sanctions on Pyongyang imposed by the Security Council.

    "Both the secretary and the minister agreed that we were starting to see effective coordination, not just among a few of the Asian states, but in Middle East and elsewhere," on enforcing sanctions authorized in the panel's Resolution 1874, he said without elaboration.

    "Several states have taken steps without pressing from the United States or other countries," he said. "They have unilaterally chosen to either inspect cargoes or turn ships back to port in North Korea."

    "We've also had a series of sanctions against financial entities in Northeast Asia that were involved in one way or another in provocative activities, nuclear and other related activities of North Korea," Campbell added. "I think the United States, South Korea and Japan agreed that continuing along these lines is an essential part of our strategy going forward."