Restart of six-party talks possible within next 10 days: U.S. official

The six-party North Korea nuclear talks could reopen within the next few days, a senior U.S.official said Friday.

"There is potential in the next 10 days or so," the official said on background.

"I am leaning forward a little bit...I think there is a possibility of their reconvening."

China, the host of the talks also involving South and North Korea, the U.S., Russia and Japan, will make the announcement once the dates are set.

"Clearly, everybody is comfortable, if they do reconvene, with the state of preparation," the official said.

The U.S. and other parties had sought assurances from North Korea on concrete steps toward nuclear dismantlement before the six-party talks reopened.

Asked whether Pyongyang took such steps, the official said there is "an appreciation of what the parameters of moving forward in this round means."

Press reports from Tokyo and Moscow put the resumption date at Dec. 16.

After a year-long boycott, North Korea agreed on the last day of October to come back to the six-nation forum. It did not give a reason for the unexpected turnaround but claimed the U.S. agreed to discuss and resolve the issue of financial sanctions, referring to U.S. Treasury's action on a Macau bank accused of laundering money for the North.

It will be the first nuclear session attended by the North Koreans since Pyongyang's first nuclear test on Oct. 9.

Stressing repeatedly that the next round shouldn't just be talks, Washington and other capitals demanded that Pyongyang come back with a firm resolve to dismantle its nuclear weapons and programs and take action toward denuclearization.

Lead negotiators were in Beijing last week, meeting bilaterally and multilaterally, exploring each other's intentions. They parted without setting a date for the talks resumption.

The U.S. official said there were no promises by Pyongyang.

"There is nothing to guarantee," he said, "but if there is a reconvening of the talks, then you can assume that everybody has a rational expectation that there would be an outline for some progress."

An announcement of the talks resumption would mean that North Korea is coming back well-prepared, he said.

Washington. 8 (Yonhap News)