U.S.-North Korea Talks Set for March

WASHINGTON – U.S. and North Korean officials will meet in New York on March 5-6 to discuss initial steps toward normalizing relations, the State Department said Wednesday.

Spokesman Sean McCormack said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill will meet with North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan.

Talks on establishing normal relations after decades of hostility were called for in the six-party nuclear disarmament agreement signed in China on Feb. 13.

McCormack said Hill and Kim will spent a lot of time working on the agenda for the normalization process.

“It’s not a meeting that will produce immediate results,” McCormack said.

Lt. Gen. Michael Maples, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said Tuesday that officials had seen North Korea take preliminary steps toward shutting down its main nuclear reactor, which the North pledged to close and seal in return for an initial load of fuel oil. More aid would follow once North Korean technicians had disabled its nuclear programs.

“There are parts of this nuclear program that we have to pay a lot of attention to, to see if we have the kind of disclosure and the inspection capabilities that we’re looking for,” Maples said.

Hill is scheduled to appear at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing today.

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On the Net:

CIA World Factbook on North Korea:

https://http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook /geos/kn.html