US likely to send envoy to Pyongyang: official

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States is "likely" to decide soon to send special envoy Stephen Bosworth to North Korea in a bid to jumpstart denuclearization talks, a senior US official said Monday.

"I think it's quite likely," the State Department official said on condition of anonymity.

The official said the announcement would likely take place before President Barack Obama heads this week to Asia, but Bosworth's trip would take place later.

North Korea has invited Bosworth to visit for talks to end what it calls Washington's "hostile" policy toward the communist state.

The United States has said it is willing to sit down with North Korea but only if such a meeting is considered as part of six-nation talks that led to 2005 and 2007 agreements for North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.

"The main thing is that we want to encourage the resumption of the six-party talks. If that can be done in some other way, we will do it that way, but the invitation is for him to go to Pyongyang," the anonymous official said.

But State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters he had no announcement to make on any travel by Bosworth.

North Korea has unleashed a string of actions this year that infuriated the President Barack Obama's administration, including testing a nuclear bomb and test-firing a missile over Japan, a close Washington ally.

While the Obama administration has sought dialogue with US adversaries from Iran to Cuba, its response to North Korea has been largely comprised of punishment, including a tightening of sanctions led by the United Nations.

But officials in recent days have made it clear they are willing to sit down with North Korea, in Pyongyang or elsewhere, so long as the communist state acknowledges it is bound by previous commitments under the six-way talks.

The administration has flatly ruled out recognition of North Korea as a nuclear weapons power -- which many experts believe is leader Kim Jong-Il's ultimate goal amid questions about his health.

The United States has periodically sent envoys in the past to Pyongyang, despite the lack of diplomatic relations, but Bosworth's trip would be the first such mission since Obama took office in January.

Former president Bill Clinton visited the North Korean capital in August to free two journalists, although officials said it was considered a private trip.