US envoy wraps up DPRK visit

The United States and the DPRK have reached consensus on the need to resume the six-party talks. US special envoy to the DPRK, Stephen Bosworth, made the remarks on Thursday in Seoul after his three-day trip to Pyongyang.

Bosworth called the trip to Pyongyang "very useful", adding views were exchanged in a "candid, business-like" way.

Stephen Bosworth, US special envoy to DPRK, said, "We identified some common understandings on the need for and the role of the six-party-talks and the importance of implementation of the 2005 Joint Statement."

During talks with the DPRK officials, Bosworth said he conveyed US President Barack Obama's views.

Stephen Bosworth, US special envoy to DPRK, said, "As President Obama has made clear, the United States is prepared to work with our allies and partners in the region to offer North Korea a different future. The path for North Korea to realize this future is to choose the door of dialogue in the six-party-talks and to take irreversible steps to achieve the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula."

But the two sides did not make arrangements for a follow-up bilateral meeting.

Bosworth will leave South Korea on Friday and visit Beijing, Moscow and Tokyo to brief other members of the six-party talks on the results.

U.S. President Barack Obama's special envoy on DPRK, Stephen Bosworth, answers a reporter's questions during a press briefing after returning from DPRK at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Dec. 10, 2009. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)