Anybody hear about the US having "direct" talks with N. Korea?

[cantstandbush]

Heard a blurb on the radio but couldn't get details. Is this another flip-flop by this administration?

[cal04]

1. here's an article on Aljazeera

The United States and North Korea have begun direct talks for the first time since Pyongyang pledged two weeks ago to abandon its nuclear weapons programme, a top US envoy says.

Christopher Hill, the chief US negotiator to the Beijing-hosted multilateral meeting aimed at dismantling North Korea's nuclear weapons network, said on Tuesday that the bilateral talks were held between his staff and officials from North Korea's UN mission in New York.

The talks came ahead of Hill's much-speculated trip to North Korea to push through with international efforts prodding North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons programme in return for security guarantees, energy aid and normalisation of relations. "We have had contacts through the New York channel," Hill, the chief US diplomat for East Asia, said, without specifying when or how many round of the talks were held.

Direct talks

This is the first time the United States had announced it had held direct meetings with North Korea since the hard-line regime agreed to give up its nuclear programme at the end of the fourth round of the six-party talks in Beijing on 19 September.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E8695D29-9ADE-4440-AB21-13482556FD45.htm