WASHINGTON, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic
People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) wants to have direct talks with the United
States, instead of the six-party talks, said New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson
on Wednesday.
After meeting with two DPRK diplomats in his mansion
in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Richardson told MSNBC that Pyongyang is prepared to
have a dialogue with the United States, but that it is still resisting
participating in the six-party talks.
Richardson, who served as U.S. ambassador to the UN
and Energy Secretary and visited Pyongyang for several times in the past years,
hosted Kim Myong-Gil and Paek Jong-Jo from the DPRK's mission to the UN for an
informal meeting.
But the meeting was
approved by the U.S. State Department, according to Richardson, who added that
the temperature has cooled down in the U.S.-DPRK relations after a period of
increasing hostility.
The meeting, which was reportedly requested by the
DPRK side, came after former U.S. president Bill Clinton paid a successful visit
to Pyongyang, where he met with top leader Kim Jong-Il and secured the release
of two American journalists.
Clinton has briefed President Barack Obama on his
Pyongyang tour.
The DPRK's official news agency KCNA said Kim and
Clinton had talks on improving bilateral relations, while the Obama
administration insisted that Clinton did not discuss any issues beyond the
journalists' release.
Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who worked for the Current
TV co-founded by former vice president Al Gore, were captured in March for
illegally crossing the DPRK border from China and sentenced to12 years of hard
labor in June.
Following Clinton's visit, Pyongyang announced the
release. Analysts here said Pyongyang wants to use the chance to explore a
direct dialogue mechanism with the United States on improving the bilateral
relations.
"The North Koreans clearly feel they are owed
something, that they released the two Americans that they want something in
return," Richardson said.
"I agree it is going to be hard to keep South Korea,
China, Japan out of the conversation with North Korea," said Richardson, but
adding that there might be "a framework within the six-party talks for on-on-one
talks."
The Obama administration claims that the dialogue
should be in the Pyongyang's denuclearization process guided by the six-party
talks mechanism, which involved the DPRK, the United States, China, the Republic
of Korea, Japan and Russia.
"The six-party process is the most effective way to
deal with the issues that we have with North Korea," said State Department
spokesman Philip Crowley, adding that within the six-party process "there can be
bilateral discussions, not just with the United States, but other countries, as
well."
According to an agreement signed at the six-party
talks in February 2007, the Bush administration agreed to begin discussion on
normalization of relations with the DPRK, in exchange for Pyongyang's shutdown
of its nuclear facilities.
The talks on normalizing the U.S.-DPRK relations were
kicked off in March 2007, but few developments have been made because the
denuclearization process in the Korean Peninsula was often drawn in the
stalemate.
Dismissing international opposition, the DPRK
conducted an underground nuclear test on May 25 and since then has fired at
least seven ballistic missiles. It also boycotted the six-party talks on its
nuclear program.
Responding to Pyongyang's behavior, the Obama
administration has decided to extend economic sanctions by prolonging the
national emergency on the DPRK and has vowed to enforce sanctions against
Pyongyang set in the UN Security Council Resolution
1874.
