Nuclear talks in Korea

A SENIOR North Korean representative said yesterday his government was ready to end its nuclear weapons program if the US changes its “hostile policy” toward Pyongyang.

Reflecting recent progress in talks with the reclusive Stalinist state, North Korea’s representative to the UN, making his first visit to Capitol Hill, said Pyongyang would not only freeze its nuclear weapons program but also refrain from transferring or testing nuclear devices.

“The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea will give up its nuclear weapons program if conditions are met to end the US hostile policy,” Gil Yon Park told a forum sponsored by the Korea Society and other groups in a US Senate office building.

Donald Gregg, chairman of the Korea Society and a former US ambassador to South Korea, called the meeting a “historic session.”