Former US officals, scholars meet NKoreans

NEW YORK (AP) — Participants in last week's U.S.-North Korea talks remain far apart on many issues, but both sides appreciate the importance of continued dialogue, a group of former U.S. diplomats and scholars said after meeting unofficially with the visiting North Korean delegation on Monday.

Donald Zagoria, of the nonpartisan think tank National Committee on American Foreign Policy, said he and other regional specialists were pleased by their frank discussions with the North Korean delegation at Carnegie Corporation headquarters in New York. Zagoria is project director for the committee's Forum on Asia Pacific Security.

But he and other participants said that the United States and North Korea, which met formally here last week, remain far apart on many issues.

"We should not underestimate the gaps that exist between the two sides," said Evans J. R. Revere, a past president of the Korea Society. "I think we are as far apart as we have ever been." Revere said both sides at Monday's so-called "Track II" discussions agreed that "there is value in continued dialogue, in continued contact."

The meeting followed talks Thursday and Friday between the North Koreans and U.S. diplomats at the American mission to the U.N., which has raised hopes that the nuclear-armed North can be persuaded to halt its push to expand its atomic arsenal.

Both North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan and U.S. Ambassador Stephen Bosworth, the top American envoy on North Korean affairs, had characterized last week's discussions as "constructive and businesslike"

The United States, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia have been negotiating since 2003 with Pyongyang to persuade North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons programs. Pyongyang pulled out of the six-party talks in April 2009 after being censured for launching a long-range missile.

Some analysts are skeptical about whether the North would give up its nuclear program, especially since it conducted a second nuclear test and revealed a uranium enrichment facility that could give it another way to make nuclear bombs since the last formal six-party talks in 2008. Seoul and Washington have insisted that inter-Korean ties must also improve following two attacks that killed 50 South Koreans last year.

This week's discussions aimed to build on last month's surprise discussions between nuclear negotiators from North and South Korea on the sidelines of a regional security gathering in Indonesia.

Ambassador Mark Minton, president of the New York-based Korea Society, said Monday's more informal discussions were just as important "because people who are not in government are able to describe the atmosphere, as they see it." Minton said he was among three Korea Society officials at Monday's meeting.

"We are hopeful that these kinds of unofficial discussions can lead to incremental change," said fellow participant Stephen J. Del Rosso, of the Carnegie Corporation's international peace and security program.

Zagoria added that North Korean officials "find value" in the informal talks, especially because they include former diplomats and scholars they have dealt with in the past. He credited a similar "Track II" meeting with North Korean officials in 2005 for leading to the country's agreement to formal six-party talks held later that year.