North Korea signaled today that it could soon return to nuclear disarmament talks it had previously walked away from about six months ago. Leader Kim Jong-il told Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on a visit to Pyongyang that he wanted talks with the United States. North Korea sees such talks as critical to ending its status as an enemy of world peace, a designation which it argues leaves no choice but to have a nuclear arsenal.
“The hostile relations between the DPRK (North Korea) and the United States should be converted into peaceful ties through the bilateral talks without fail,” North Korea’s KCNA news agency quoted Kim as saying.
“We expressed our readiness to hold multilateral talks, depending on the outcome of the DPRK-U.S. talks. The six-party talks are also included in the multilateral talks.”