U.S., North Korea to meet in New York March 5-6

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The United States and North Korea will hold working group talks in New York on March 5-6 on the normalization of relations, the U.S. State Department said on Wednesday but played down expectations of any breakthrough.

"This is a first meeting of this working group," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters. "Don't look at it as a meeting that is going to produce immediate results. Nobody is going to come out the front door and wave a piece of paper with some agreement on it."


http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/WAT007052.htm

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1. U.S. and North Korea set normalisation talks

The United States, taking a step Pyongyang has long desired, will begin normalisation talks with North Korea in New York next week but the U.S. State Department on Wednesday played down expectations.

Chief U.S. negotiator Chris Hill, who will hold discussions on Monday and Tuesday with North Korean envoy Kim Kae-gwan, said the meetings would mark the beginning of what is likely to be a lengthy process called for under a February 13 nuclear agreement.

Noting "real differences" on many bilateral issues like human rights that go beyond denuclearization, Hill told a congressional committee such concerns must be addressed as the normalisation process proceeds.

He also defended a commitment to discuss taking North Korea off the U.S. "terrorism" list, saying it was in America's interest to move countries away from such behaviour.

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