North Korea seeks talks to ease missile tensions

[Eugene]

North Korea seeks talks to ease missile tensions
Wed Jun 21, 2006 5:25 AM BST

By Jon Herskovitz

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea wants talks with Washington over its apparent preparations
for a missile test, Yonhap news agency said on Wednesday as a famed South Korean peace
broker scrapped a Pyongyang visit due to regional tension.

Yonhap quoted Han Song-ryol, North Korea's deputy chief of mission at the United Nations
in New York, as saying that Pyongyang had a right to develop and test missiles but it
would like to ease the situation through dialogue.

"We know that the U.S. is concerned about our missile test launch," Han said in a
telephone conversation with Yonhap. "Our position is to solve this situation through
discussions."

The secretive state, which often uses its official media to indicate its policy
preferences, ran a story on its KCNA news agency on Wednesday about prominent figures
in Washington advocating direct U.S.-North Korean talks.

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Full article: http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-06-21T042518Z_01_SP196218_RTRUKOC_0_UK-KOREA-NORTH.xml