New talks on North Korean nuclear program set

Top diplomats from the United States, North Korea and four other nations will meet for nuclear talks in the coming week, a South Korean official said Friday, the highest level of contact between the countries amid recent progress on Pyongyang's nuclear disarmament. The diplomats, including the U.S. secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, and the North Korean foreign minister, Pak Ui Chun, are to meet on the sidelines of an Asian security meeting in Singapore, which they had already planned to attend, the official said. Along with the United States and North Korea, the arms talks include China, South Korea, Japan and Russia. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the organizer of the nuclear talks, China, had not yet made a formal announcement about the meeting. The talks in Singapore would be the first time the... [read full story]