VOA标准英语2010年-UN Urges North Korea to Continue Talks

（单词翻译）

UN political chief B. Lynn Pascoe speaks during a press conference at UNDP office building in Beijing, 12 Feb 2010

North Korea is not eager to return to six-party talks but has not rejected the idea, the U.N.'s top political official said on Friday following a trip to the reclusive country.

UN under-secretary-general for political affairs Lynn Pascoe said Friday he spent four days in Pyongyang having "useful talks" with senior members of the North Korean government, including top official Kim Yong-Nam .

But, Pascoe revealed that North Korea is not eager to return to six-party talks.

"The attitude right now as I said is they are not happy with the sanctions and they were certainly not eager   - not ruling out but certainly not eager  - to return to the Six Party Talks, so we'll see where that comes," he said.

Pascoe's comments came as news reports said North Korea's chief nuclear negotiator, Kim Kye-gwan, was planning a rare visit to the U.S. next month.

But the UN envoy¹ refused to speculate on such a visit, citing the sensitivity surrounding the latest attempts by China this week to persuade North Korea to return to the six-party talks.

Meanwhile in Beijing, Chinese and North Korean officials met for a third day Thursday to try to restart the six-party talks, which Pyongyang has boycotted² since last year.

And the foreign ministers of South Korea and Japan met in Seoul and demanded that North Korea return to the six-party talks unconditionally³.  South Korea's Yu Myung-hwan and his Japanese counterpart, Katsuya Okada, said North Korea also must make "practical progress" in denuclearization, before it can get any political or economic concessions⁴.

Pascoe flies onto Tokyo and Seoul Saturday to brief the Japanese and South Korean governments.

The six-party talks involve the two Koreas, the United States, Russia, Japan and China.  North Korea has conditioned its return to the talks on a lifting of international sanctions and a start to peace negotiations⁵ with the United States.

A 1953 armistice ended the Korean War, but a formal peace treaty has never been signed