US open to conditional talks with North Korea

The United States today said it is open to bilateral talks with North Korea if Pyongyang takes some concrete steps to fulfill its commitments.

"Our longstanding policy is that we are open to a bilateral dialogue, but only in the context of the Six-Party Talks, only in a multilateral context," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said.

Responding to a question about North Korea's offer of talks, Kelly said: "You heard what the Secretary (of State Hillary Clinton) said yesterday. She said that we are not going to reward the North Koreans by agreeing to meet with them without some specific actions that they have to take. They know exactly what those actions are."

Noting that the required actions were laid out in the 2005 joint statement, Kelly said: "If they take those actions, take some concrete steps, we are willing to meet in the Six-Party context, and within that context we could have bilateral discussions with them."

Kelly said the Obama Administration wants concrete steps to be taken by North Korea before it can go for a dialogue with them.

"We want them to uphold their commitments. Those commitments are laid out very specifically in this joint statement that they signed. Once they start doing that and agree to talks in a Six-Party context, then we can start talking about some movement forward. But right now, I don't see any," he said.