A top U.S. diplomat for East Asia and Pacific Affairs says the UnitedStates is willing to talk with North Korea if it abandons its nuclearambitions.
Kurt Campbell told reporters in South Korea Saturdaythat the U.S. is following a two-track strategy. He said the UnitedStates also is pressing for the enforcement of United Nations sanctionsagainst the regime in Pyongyang.
Campbell arrived in Seoul fromTokyo, where he discussed the North Korean nuclear threat with Japaneseofficials. The two sides agreed to set up regular talks on boostingthe U.S. defense of Japan against a possible attack by North Korea.
The U.S. official said the first bilateral discussion will take place in Washington in several weeks.
Pyongyang'ssecond nuclear test in May and a series of ballistic missile launchesthis year have prompted Japanese hard-line politicians to call for adebate on whether Japan should acquire its own nuclear arms as adeterrent. That issue is a sensitive one in Japan, the only country tosuffer a nuclear attack.
Campbell saidFriday in Tokyo that it is important to send a collective message toNorth Korea that it is not too late to return to what he called"responsible negotiations."
North Korea's nominal number twoleader Kim Yong Nam said Wednesday that talks with foreign powers arenot possible without respect for the sovereignty of the communist state.
Campbellwill head for Thailand early next week, to join U.S. Secretary of StateHillary Clinton at a regional forum of the 10-member Association ofSoutheast Asian Nations (ASEAN). North Korea is expected to bediscussed on the sidelines of that forum.