US special representative on the issue of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Stephen Bosworth said that the new US administration remained committed to removing nuclear facilities on the Korean Peninsula.
Bosworth made the remarks at a briefing Wednesday after meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, saying that the United States' aim of removing nuclear facilities will not change.
Bosworth also said his visit to Northeast Asia demonstrated the importance that the new administration attached actively to the issues of the Korean Peninsula, and the most important of those is to resume the six-party talks as soon as possible.
The six parties ended their third meeting during the sixth round of talks last December in Beijing without substantial progress on how to verify the DPRK's nuclear facilities.
"We believe the six-party-talks are central to all our efforts to deal with what's happening on the Peninsula," Bosworth said.
The DPRK said last month that it was preparing to launch a communications satellite, which South Korea and the United States officials believed could be a test of a long-range missile that in theory could reach the US west coast.
"It was far better not to see the launch," Bosworth stressed.
Bosworth arrived here on Tuesday, and is scheduled to fly to Tokyo on Thursday for talks with Japanese officials. After that, he will also travel to Seoul to meet with meet Russian as well as South Korean officials.
Bosworth served as US ambassador to the Republic of Korea from 1997 to 2000, and executive director of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization from 1995-1997. He was dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University before taking up the present post.
(Xinhua News Agency March 4, 2009)