The United States confirmed on Monday that it had two meetings with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in New York on Nov. 30 and Dec. 3 on the thorny issue of DPRK's nuclear issue.  

"The purpose of those meetings was not to negotiate with the North Koreans. The purpose was to state to the North Koreans that the United States is ready to resume the six-party talks at an early date and without preconditions, and that we want to resolve the nuclear issue diplomatically," State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said at a briefing.

Ereli said the United States is committed to resolving the DPRK nuclear issue through the six-party talks.

"We told the North Koreans that the six-party process is the venue for resolving the nuclear issue, and just as we do publicly, we called on North Korea to follow through on its commitment to continue with six-party talks," Ereli said.

"The real substance, the real engagement, the real diplomacy is conducted in multilateral venue because this is an issue that needs a multilateral solution," he said.

Ereli said that there will be more meetings "through the New York channel" in the future, but he is not aware of anything on schedule.

Three rounds of the six-party talks, hosted by China, have been held to try to end the nuclear confrontation between the DPRK and the United States.

(Xinhua News Agency December 7, 2004)