North Korea 'will talk', says UK envoy
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-09-14 17:05

North Korea is still committed to six-party talks on its nuclear programme, according to a British envoy.

But UK Foreign Office minister Bill Rammell said he did not know when negotiations would begin again.

"Certainly one of the factors they are considering ... is the timing of the American presidential election" in November, he said.

Mr Rammell was talking in Beijing, after a four-day visit to the counntry.

China wants the talks to resume before the end of this month.

"At the end of those discussions, what was clear to me was that the North Koreans were saying they were still committed to the six-party talks process but weren't prepared to commit to a date," he said, after holding talks in Pyongyang.

"I simply said to them, 'You have got to come back to the table'."

While in North Korea Mr Rammell obtained a pledge that UK officials could visit the site of a huge explosion last week that raised fears of a possible nuclear test.

UK ambassador David Slinn will lead a visit to the site, and "all the heads of missions in Pyongyang will be allowed to go on that trip," said Mr Rammell.

Pyongyang says the explosion was in fact the demolition of a mountain as part of a huge hydro-electric project.