N. Korea Overture to U.S. Is Rebuffed

North Korea invited the chief U.S. nuclear envoy to visit Pyongyang, but Washington rejected the invitation Thursday, saying any negotiations must include representatives from all the countries in stalled six-nation talks.

North Korea invited Christopher Hill, assistant secretary of State, to directly explain whether the United States intends to implement a joint agreement in which North Korea pledged to scrap nuclear weapons programs in exchange for aid, security assurances and greater diplomatic recognition.

“If the U.S. has a true political intention to implement the joint statement, we kindly invite once again the head of the U.S. side’s delegation to the talks to visit Pyongyang and directly explain it to us,” the North’s official news agency, KCNA, quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying.

White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said, “The United States is not going to engage in bilateral negotiations with the government of North Korea.”

Hill, chief U.S. envoy to the nuclear talks among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States, has said he is willing to directly meet North Korean officials within the six-party format and indicated a desire to meet the North’s leader, Kim Jong Il.

The government in Pyongyang has refused to return to the talks since the last round in November because of a U.S. crackdown on firms suspected of aiding North Korea in illicit financial activities.

Park Young-ho, of the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, said the North’s invitation might be based on the belief that, after a fresh U.S. offer of nuclear talks with Iran, its chances of direct talks have improved.