U.S. not inviting N. Korean official in January: State Dept. official

U.S. not inviting N. Korean official in January: State Dept. official
By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Dec. 29 (Yonhap) -- The United States does not have any plan to
invite North Korean officials to coincide with the inauguration of
President-elect Barack Obama on Jan. 20, a State Department official said Monday.

"We have no current plan for Kim Kye-gwan to visit the United States in January,"
the official said, asking anonymity.
The official was denying the allegations that the chief North Korean nuclear
envoy or another North Korean official will visit Washington or New York on the
occasion of Obama's inauguration to discuss six-party talks on ending North
Korea's nuclear ambitions and other issues of bilateral concern.
North Korea does not have diplomatic ties with the U.S., so it is almost
impossible for a North Korean official to attend the inauguration, another
official said.
The Obama transition team, meanwhile, has no plans to invite foreign delegations
from any other countries to the inaugural ceremony with their ambassadors
representing their governments at the ceremony, the official said.
Talks, however, abounded that Kim will fly to New York to meet with officials of
the Obama administration on and around Jan. 20 on the margins of an academic
seminar just as Ri Gun, director general of the North American affairs bureau of
North Korea's foreign ministry, visited New York on the day of Obama's election
in early November.
In either case, any North Korean official should get permission from the U.S.
State Department before flying into the U.S.
Ri Gun, director general of the North American affairs bureau of North Korea's
Foreign Ministry, met with Frank Jannuzi, a key foreign policy adviser to Obama,
in New York in early November, saying "We are ready to respond to any U.S.
administration whatever its North Korea policy may be. We've handled many U.S.
administrations, some seeking dialogue with us and others trying to isolate and
oppress us."
Reports said Obama will send a high-level envoy to Pyongyang soon after his
inauguration for discussions on the stalled multilateral nuclear talks.
Obama has said he will meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il without any
preconditions, denouncing Bush for having allowed North Korea to produce eight
nuclear warheads by refusing to engage the North for the first six years of his
tenure.
Bush began actively engaging the North after Pyongyang detonated its first
nuclear device in October 2006.
The six-party talks hit another snag recently as North Korea refused to allow
inspectors to take samples from its main reactor for scientific inspection of its
nuclear facilities.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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