North Korea invites U.S. nuclear envoy to Pyongyang

SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea today invited the chief U.S. nuclear envoy to visit the communist nation to prove Washington is committed to an agreement last year in which the North pledged to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill has previously expressed a desire to visit the North if it would help the six-nation arms negotiations, although he has said many factors would determine if such a trip could be made.

"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," an unidentified spokesman for the North's Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
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The New York-based reactor project from the earlier nuclear deal was formally shut down Wednesday by the U.S., South Korea, Japan and European Union. In Seoul, the South Korean Unification Ministry, which is in charge of dealings with the North, lamented the end of the project to build the light-water reactors — which are believed to be difficult to divert to the production of weapons-grade uranium.

"The government thinks it is regrettable that the light-water reactor project was terminated," the ministry said in a statement.

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