Lalit K Jha/ PTI / Washington Jul 31, 2009, 10:06 IST
Ruling out any direct talks with North Korea on nuclear disarmament negotiations, the US today said Pyongyang can only be engaged multilaterally through the six-party mechanism.
The US statement comes in the wake of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon supporting direct talks between America and North Korea.
"Our approach on North Korea is we feel very strongly that we have to engage North Korea multilaterally through the six-party mechanism," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said at his daily press briefing.
"That is our approach and that is the approach of our five partners in the Six-Party Talks as well," Kelly said.
The countries that are part of the six-party nuclear disarmament negotiations with North Korea are -- South Korea, Japan, China, Russia and the US.
North Korea withdrew from the negotiations after the UN censured its long-range missile test in April.
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