U.S. plans talks with N. Koreans

WASHINGTON - Raising hopes for a new era of rapprochement with nuclear-armed North Korea, the Obama administration said Wednesday it would sit down with the reclusive regime for a fresh round of nuclear-weapons talks and appoint a full-time envoy with the task of persuading Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear program.

Disarmament efforts are saddled with a history of deceit and mistrust, but the meetings Monday and Tuesday in Geneva, Switzerland, represent another step forward after last year's military attacks on South Korea that led to threats of war. They are the second set of nuclear discussions between the United States and North Korea since July, after a three-year freeze in diplomacy.

"We're looking for more progress," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in Washington. "We're not seeking to reward North Korea in any way by holding these talks. . . . We want to see a seriousness of purpose and a commitment to moving this process forward to taking the steps that they've already committed to take."

As Washington intensifies its engagement of Pyongyang, it is turning to seasoned diplomat Glyn Davies to lead the efforts. Davies, the U.S. ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, will replace Stephen Bosworth, though both will be meeting next week with the North Korean delegation.

The United States and its ally South Korea are pressing familiar demands. Washington wants North Korea to adhere to a 2005 agreement on which it later reneged, which required the North's verifiable denuclearization in exchange for better relations with its Asian neighbors, energy assistance, and a pledge from Washington that it would not attack the isolated country.

To demonstrate Washington's seriousness, U.S. officials want Pyongyang to take concrete steps such as freezing its uranium and plutonium programs and allowing IAEA inspectors back into the country. They are also looking for the North to show that it won't launch any new military actions against South Korea, or further nuclear or missile tests.

In its latest nuclear-related infraction, North Korea unveiled a uranium-enrichment program in 2010 in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions. Tensions also spiked last year after South Korea was attacked twice militarily, including the sinking of a submarine that was blamed on the North and killed 46 sailors.

In a separate engagement effort, the United States also has reopened talks with North Korea on cooperative searches for the remains of U.S. troops killed in the Korean War. This is a topic that North Korea sees as a humanitarian gesture and that Washington has periodically embraced as a means of improving relations.

A U.S. delegation led by the Pentagon's top POW/MIA official began talks Tuesday with the North Koreans on how and when to resume searches for what the Pentagon estimates are 5,500 U.S. servicemen unaccounted for on North Korean soil.

Also at issue is how much North Korea would be paid for assisting in the searches; before suspension of the effort in 2005, the United States paid about $1 million per mission. North Korea's economy is in shambles and even those relatively small sums would have meaning as Kim Jong Il's regime prepares for a leadership succession and the centennial next year of the birth of his father and nation's founder, Kim Il Sung.