SEOUL, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- The United States has yet to decide whether to meet with North Korea on stalled six-party talks on Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programs, a diplomat said.
Yonhap News Agency reported Kurt Campbell, assistant U.S. secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, told reporters when asked about the possibility of a new round of talks, "No decision has been taken about next steps."
Campbell met Friday in Seoul with South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan to discuss their stance on the six-party talks before next week's meeting in Washington between South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and U.S. President Barack Obama.
Campbell said Lee and Obama will discuss an "appropriate way forward" on meetings with North Korea.
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Chief nuclear envoys from the North and South met last month in Beijing about terms for restarting the six-party talks but reported no significant progress.
"I don't think there were any breakthroughs," Campbell said. "The United States and South Korea are quite clear about what our expectations are in terms of the necessary pre-steps."
A meeting between the envoys for the two Koreas in Indonesia in July, the first in two years, led to rare talks between U.S. and North Korean representatives on the North's nuclear program in July at the United Nations.
The six-party talks -- which include Russia, China and Japan -- are an effort to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons programs in exchange for economic and political aid. North Korea quit the talks in 2009 and conducted its second nuclear tests a month later.
The United States and South Korea want the North to halt all nuclear activities, including uranium enrichment, and allow U.N. inspectors to monitor compliance before restarting the six-party talks.
