SEOUL: US Secretary of State Colin Powell said yesterday the United States expects to hold talks with communist North Korea when the time is right and omitted to cite Washington’s usual preconditions for a meeting.
Analysts say they expect next week’s mission to the isolated North by a special envoy from the South’s outgoing president, Kim Dae-jung, to be a forerunner to possible meetings involving Russia and China and eventually to result in talks between Pyongyang and Washington.