North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il was given a letter from Barack Obama during a trip by the US president's envoy last week, state media said Friday.
This undated picture released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency in late November shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il inspecting a fruit farm in suburban Pyongyang. Kim Jong-Il was given a letter from Barack Obama during a trip by the US president's envoy last week, state media said.The agency gave no further details.
US officials said Wednesday that Bosworth had delivered a letter during his groundbreaking visit to Pyongyang from December 8 to 10, but refused to divulge its contents.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the letter contained a proposal by Washington to set up a liaison office in Pyongyang if the communist country returns to six-party nuclear disarmament talks.
The US office could be set up in Pyongyang as early as next year if North Korea returns to the six-party forum, an unnamed diplomatic source told Yonhap.
Yonhap quoted the source as saying Washington and Pyongyang were expected to start "serious discussions" on diplomatic normalisation or a peace treaty to mark a formal end to the Korean war if the liaison office is set up.
"Six-party negotiations may resume in the first half of next year," the source said.
A peace treaty would replace the armistice that ended the 1950-1953 Korean War, during which North Korea, backed by Chinese troops, fought South Korea, supported by US-led UN troops.
After the three-day trip to Pyongyang, Bosworth said Washington and Pyongyang agreed on the need to resume talks.
But he said it was unclear when the North might return to nuclear negotiations, which group the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, China and Russia.
In April, angry at international censure of its launch of a long-range rocket, North Korea declared the six-party talks "dead".
In May it staged its second nuclear test since 2006 and followed up with missile launches in July, attracting tougher UN sanctions.