US envoy off to China, SKorea, Japan to jumpstart NKorea talks

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A US special envoy has left on a mission to China, South Korea (news - web sites) and Japan to help jumpstart six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea (news - web sites)'s nuclear weapons drive, the US State Department said.

The trip by Joseph DeTrani, the special envoy for negotiations with North Korea, came after he held "face-to-face" meetings with North Korean officials in New York last week, department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters.

As the United States and North Korea do not have diplomatic relations, Washington often passes messages to Pyongyang through its representatives at the United Nations (news - web sites) in New York.

A North Korean spokesman said at the weekend that Pyongyang remained "unchanged in our stand to seek a negotiated solution to the nuclear issue."

He said Washington showed no willingness to change its "hostile policy" toward the communist state and intended to use the six-party talks to force it to dismantle all its nuclear programmes, including those for peaceful purposes.

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