North Korean Envoy Meets With U.S. Nuclear Negotiator in New York

A North Korean diplomat met with the chief U.S. nuclear negotiator Saturday in New York during a rare visit by an official from the communist country.

"Ambassador Ri Gun has traveled to the U.S. on the invitation of U.S. private organizations," said State Department spokesman Noel Clay.

While in New York, the North's No. 2 nuclear envoy met with Sung Kim, the U.S. special envoy for the six-party talks, a set of multilateral disarmament summits the North has shunned for months.

The State Department said the head-to-head meeting Saturday was arranged to "convey our position on denuclearization and the six-party talks." But South Korean news agencies have reported that the two were planning to set up future bilateral talks between the U.S. and North Korea.

The Stalinist dictatorship has long sought direct negotiations with the U.S., which has said it is willing to directly engage Pyongyang if it is assured such talks would lead to an end to its boycott of the six-nation talks involving China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the U.S.

Apart from his meeting with the U.S. official, Ri is scheduled to attend a security forum next week in California and a seminar in New York.

And fresh from his meeting Saturday with the North Korean ambassador, Kim and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Derek J. Mitchell will participate in the Northeast Asia Cooperative Dialogue Sunday, an unofficial forum where government and military officials and academic experts discuss regional security issues.

Fox News' James Rosen and the Associated Press contributed to this report.