UN chief urges North Korea to return to talks

NEW YORK - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Wednesday appealed to North Korea’s communist regime to return to six-party talks about dismantling its nuclear weapons programme, just hours after the release of two US journalists from North Korean prison.

In a statement released by his spokeswoman Michele Montas, Ban said he hoped that the dialogue between North Korea and five other countries could resume.

Ban said he was happy about the decision by the Pyongyang government to pardon the two women on humanitarian grounds. They were sentenced in June to 12 years hard labour for allegedly overstepping the China-North Korea border while working on a story for Current TV about women and trafficking.

Ban also congratulated former US president Bill Clinton on the success of his mission.

Laura Ling, 32, and Euna Lee, 36, were released earlier Wednesday after nearly five months in prison and have returned with Clinton to the US.

Pyongyang withdrew from talks with the US, Japan, Russia, China and South Korea after the UN Security Council tightened sanctions in June in reprisal for testing another nuclear bomb.

In Nairobi, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, wife of the former president, sought to separate the humanitarian release from the nuclear talks.

“We have been working hard on the release of the two journalists, we have always considered that a separate issue from the effort to re-engage the North Koreans and have them to return to six-party talks and work to a commitment for the full, verifiable denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula,” she said.

“The future of our relations with the North Koreans is up to them. They have a choice. They can continue to follow a path that is filled with provocative action that further isolates them from the international community … or they can decide to renew their discussions with partners in six-party talks,” she said.