WASHINGTON, June 7 (UPI) -- North Korea told U.S. officials it would return to six-party talks but did not specify when the talks would reopen, the State Department said Tuesday.
"The North Koreans said they would return to the six-party process but they did not give a time certain when they would return," spokesman Mark McCormack said.
At U.N. World Headquarters in New York, the ambassador from China, North Korea's closest ally, said the talks would resume in Beijing "soon."
"No one talks about anywhere else," Wang Guangya told reporters. "I think it will be pretty soon. I think it is in the next few weeks."
The assurances came at a meeting Monday between Joseph DiTrani, U.S. special envoy to the talks, Jim Foster, head of the state department's Korean Affairs office, and North Korean officials in New York. The meeting included Pyongyang's envoy to the United Nations.
The stalled six-party talks also involve China, Japan, South Korea and Russia.
Similar discussions were held May 13 in an attempt to restart multilateral talks on North Korea's nuclear capabilities, which have been stalled since last year.
