U.S. cautious about results of talks with N. Korea

(LEAD) (ATTN: UPDATES throughout with details, comments by N. Korean envoy to U.N.; CHANGES headline, dateline) By Lee Chi-dong WASHINGTON/NEW YORK, July 27 (Yonhap) -- Ahead of two days of rare high-profile talks with North Korea, the United States on Tuesday remained cautious -- at least outwardly -- about the prospects for results. "We will wait and see," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in response to the overt optimism of North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan. Arriving in New York Tuesday, Kim said he was upbeat about the Pyongyang-Washington ties and the future of the six-party nuclear negotiations. Toner described the inter-Korean meeting in Bali, Indonesia, last week was a "constructive first step." "This is the next logical step," he said. He confirmed that the North's delegation, led by Kim, will meet an inter-agency team head by Stephen Bosworth, U.S special representative for North Korea policy, in New York on Thursday and Friday. The venue will be the U.S. mission in New York, where the reclusive communist nation also has a diplomatic mission to the United Nations, according to the spokesman. He did not reveal the list of U.S. delegates. "This will be an exploratory meeting to determine if North Korea is prepared to fulfill its commitments under the 2005 joint statement of the six-party talks and its international obligations, as well as take concrete and irreversible steps towards denuclearization," Toner said. In the 2005 deal, Pyongyang pledged to abandon all of its nuclear program in return for political and economic rewards such as energy aid and security guarantees. When asked about preconditions, Toner said, "We don't have a laundry list... We want to see them begin to take steps towards denuclearization." Informed sources said the U.S. and South Korea want North Korea to halt long-range missile tests, suspend its plutonium and uranium nuclear programs, and welcome back inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency. In New York, meanwhile, the North's chief envoy to the U.N. condemned the U.S. for its missile defense shield, news reports said. The U.S. aim is "the gaining of absolute nuclear superiority and global hegemony over the other nuclear power rivals," U.N. ambassador Sin Son-ho was quoted as saying at a U.N. debate on nuclear disarmament. "In this current changing world, one can easily understand that this dangerous move will eventually spark a new nuclear arms race," he added