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U.S. envoy to N.Korea starts out on three-stop Asian tour

RIA Novosti

14:28 03/09/2009 WASHINGTON, September 3 (RIA Novosti) - The U.S. special envoy to North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, is due to arrive in Beijing on Thursday on a three-nation tour aimed at re-starting negotiations with Pyongyang on ending its nuclear program.

Bosworth will visit Seoul on Friday and Tokyo on Sunday, before returning to the U.S. on September 8.

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the aim of the visit is "to continue consultations with our partners and allies on how best to convince North Korea that it must live up to its obligations under the September 2005 joint statement and, of course, take irreversible steps towards denuclearization."

Kelly denied earlier reports saying the envoy could visit North Korea, or meet with a North Korean foreign ministry delegation currently in Beijing.

"Bosworth has no plans to travel to Pyongyang or to meet with North Korean officials," he said.

The six-nations involved in the talks - China, the two Koreas, the U.S., Japan and Russia - reached an agreement in September 2005 on North Korea's denuclearization. The reclusive state abandoned the talks in April, following the UN Security Council's condemnation of a long-range missile test.

The U.S. has so far refused direct bilateral talks with North Korea on the issue, insisting that negotiations be held in the six-party format.

Bosworth will be accompanied by the U.S. special envoy to the six-party talks, Sung Kim, who is expected to meet in Seoul with his Russian counterpart, Grigory Logvinov.

The envoy's trip follows a series of gestures from the North apparently aimed at easing tensions with the U.S. and South Korea.

The North agreed to release two U.S. journalists during former president Bill Clinton's visit in early August. In recent weeks, Pyongyang has allowed cross-border cargo traffic with South Korea to resume, and agreed to host reunions of families divided by the Korean War. North Korea also recently released a South Korean worker at the Kaesong industrial complex, and fishermen convicted of illegally crossing the sea border.