U.S. set to announce results of talks with N. Korea: source

The United States will soon release some details of “modest progress” in its latest high-level talks with North Korea, an informed diplomatic source said Tuesday.

“The State Department is expected to announce contents related to consultations with North Korea at around 9 a.m. tomorrow,” the source said, requesting anonymity.

The top U.S. envoy on North Korea, Glyn Davies, held two days of talks with North Korea‘s Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan in Beijing last week.

The U.S. openly said there was “modest progress” and the ball is now in the courts of both sides, indicating Pyongyang and Washington alike are considering some concessions.

Another source said that in the Beijing dialogue, the North had demanded the shipment of 50,000 tons of corn in addition to 240,000 tons of “nutritional assistance” that was discussed in previous talks.

The U.S. formally uses the term instead of food aid. U.S. officials apparently don’t want to provide rice, which can be easily diverted to the military.

North Korea also expressed an intent to temporarily halt the uranium-enrichment facilities in Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang, but it proposed that the facilities be left just idle, not shuttered, apparently in order to put them back in operation more speedily in case of the breakdown of a deal, added the source. (Yonhap News)