US envoy reopens North Korea link

US President Barack Obama’s envoy began a rare trip to North Korea today as a senior US official warned of strong sanctions unless the communist nation rejoins international nuclear talks.

Envoy Stephen Bosworth’s mission is to find out whether North Korea will return to the stalled international talks on ending its nuclear programs after carrying out an atomic test blast in May and quitting the six-nation negotiations.

Footage from broadcaster APTN in Pyongyang showed Mr Bosworth and Washington’s lead nuclear negotiator, Sung Kim, arriving at an airport in Pyongyang, shaking hands with North Korean officials and posing for photos.

In Washington, a senior US official said Mr Bosworth had no new incentives for the North.

The spokesman said: “We don’t intend to reward North Korea simply for going back to doing something that it had previously committed to do.

“There are no inducements or incentives other than the fact that should they resume the talks, then they would be in a position to pursue some of the things that were possible should they proceed with denuclearisation.”

The official noted that there have been suggestions and indications that Pyongyang may be ready to rejoin the talks involving China, Japan, the two Koreas, the US and Russia. But he added, “You never know what the answer is until you ask and get the question answered.”

The official warned that the North faces strong UN sanctions if it does not agree to return to negotiations.

“At a minimum, I think it will reinforce the intention of the international community to continue a very strong enforcement” of UN sanctions resolutions adopted to punish the North for its nuclear test and other provocations.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said yesterday that she hopes Bosworth is successful in persuading the North Koreans to return to the nuclear talks, and that the North will work for “a new set of relationships with us and with our partners”.

This week’s talks – the first direct US-North Korean talks since Mr Obama took office in January – come after a year of threatening rhetoric and rising tensions on the Korean peninsula. Earlier this year, Pyongyang expelled UN nuclear inspectors, restarted its atomic facilities, test-fired a long-range rocket and a series of ballistic missiles, quit six-party talks and conducted the nuclear test.

Former nuclear envoy Christopher Hill was the last high-level official to visit for direct talks. He was in North Korea in October 2008.

Pyongyang says it needs nuclear bombs to counter the strong US military presence in South Korea.

But in recent months, the North has tried to reach out to the US and South Korea in an abrupt about-face that some analysts and officials say shows the impoverished regime is feeling the pain of UN sanctions. Since August, the North has freed detained US and South Korean citizens and taken other conciliatory steps, including inviting Mr Bosworth for direct talks.