BALI, Indonesia – North Korea's top nuclear envoy said Friday the two Koreas have agreed to work together to resume stalled disarmament talks, Yonhap news agency reported.
Ri Yong Ho met face-to-face with his South Korean counterpart, Wi Sung-lac, on the sidelines of Asia's largest security forum Friday in Bali, Indonesia.
They emerged from the three-hour meeting -- the first between nuclear envoys from the two sides since six-party talks collapsed in 2008 -- to a throng of television cameras and reporters.
"We agreed to make efforts to resume the six-party talks soon," Ri said afterward, according to Yonhap.
Wi called the meeting "very constructive" and "useful."
North Korea had walked out of the talks to protest international criticism of a prohibited long-range rocket launch but has indicated recent willingness to return to the table. It stands to get badly needed aid and other concessions if it does.
The presence of diplomats from all six countries involved in the talks -- the United States, China, Russia, Japan and North and South Korea -- at the ASEAN Regional Forum on Bali island raised hopes of a breakthrough.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she and China's foreign minister would discuss Korea on Friday.
South Korea and the United States say North Korea must demonstrate a commitment to denuclearization before any negotiations can resume. Seoul also wants a show of regret for the sinking of a warship a year ago and an artillery attack on a front-line island in November. Fifty South Koreas died in those events.
The two Koreas remain in a technical state of war because their three-year conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953. The U.S. has 28,500 troops in the South -- a presence that Pyongyang cites as a main factor behind its need to build a nuclear program.
