Clinton calls Bosworth's DPRK talks positive

WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said on Thursday that U.S. envoy Stephen Bosworth's meetings with Pyongyang officials to restart the nuclear disarmament talks were "quite positive."

"For a preliminary meeting, it was quite positive," Clinton said.

Bosworth, the U.S. special envoy to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), said earlier in the day in Seoul that the United States and the DPRK reached a common understanding on the need for resuming the six-party talks and implementing the Joint Statement of September 2005.

He held talks with the DPRK's First Vice Foreign Minister Kang Sok-ju and Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan, and communicated U.S. President Barack Obama's view that "complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is the fundamental undertaking of the six-party talks, if resumed."

Clinton said the approach the United States is taking is of "strategic patience in close coordination with our six-party allies," and to make it clear to the DPRK "what we had expected and how we were moving forward is exactly what was called for."

She stressed the meetings were preliminary, not negotiations, and that "it does remain to be seen whether and when" the DPRK will return to the six-party talks.