The United States will hold talks with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in Geneva next week over its nuclear program, following similar talks in New York in late July.

Mark Toner, spokesman of the U.S. State Department, insisted on the exploratory nature of such talks, saying that they are for the U.S. to see whether the DPRK is ready to taking any of the steps sought by the U.S. and the Republic of Korea (ROK) for the resumption of the six-party talks.

Noticeably, the U.S. will have a new team including a special envoy with a background in nuclear issues to deal with the DPRK after the Geneva talks.

"Continuation of exploratory meetings"

"This is a continuation of the exploratory meetings to determine if North Korea is prepared to fulfill its commitments under the 2005 joint statement of the six-party talks and its international obligations, as well as take concrete steps toward denuclearization," Toner told reporters at a regular news briefing.

Noting the talks are scheduled for Oct. 24-25, he said: "We're seeking to see if there's enough movement on the part of the DPRK to lead to, you know, further and broader talks."

U.S. envoy for DPRK policy Stephen Bosworth and DPRK First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan met in late July in New York over a possible resumption of the long-stalled six-party talks on Korean Peninsular denuclearization.

Toner said that after the New York talks, the U.S. side felt that there was "a good atmosphere there" and saw "enough to have another round of talks."

The Obama administration has laid out a series of "pre-steps" it would like to see from the DPRK before returning to the six- party talks, including a reaffirmation of its support for the denuclearization pledge made in the 2005 joint statement, a freeze on all activities at its Yongbyon nuclear complex, a freeze and international inspection of its uranium enrichment facility, a moratorium on nuclear and missile test, and a pledge not to attack the ROK again.

The U.S. agrees to a second set of bilateral talks with the DPRK "presumably to see whether the North is amenable to taking any of these steps," said Victor Cha, who holds the Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington.

"No change in policy"

Toner told reporters that Bosworth will step down as the envoy after leading the U.S. delegation to the upcoming talks in Geneva, while the DPRK delegation will be led again by Kim Kye Gwan.

Bosworth, who assumed his current post in Feb. 2009, will be replaced by Glyn Davies, a career diplomat who served as principal deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs and is serving as U.S. ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Toner said.

In addition, the U.S. will have Ford Hart as its new representative to the six-party talks, Toner said.

"It's important to stress this is a change in personnel, not a change in policy," the spokesman added. "And our goal is to ensure a smooth transition and to reinforce the continuity in U.S. policy toward North Korea."

Davies will attend the Geneva talks as well with Hart, where Bosworth will introduce him to the DPRK delegation, Toner said.

In his current capacity as the special envoy for the DPRK, Bosworth doubles as dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University near Boston, while Davies can commit himself to his new job whole-heartedly.

By putting Davies and Hart, two State Department veterans and career diplomats, in charge of denuclearization issue on the Korean Peninsula, the Obama administration "probably aimed at depoliticizing the policy by avoiding outside appointments," observed Cha, who was U.S. deputy envoy to the six-party talks.

He noted that the pair are both Asia specialists, but have no real previous experience in Korea and "none whatsoever in North Korea."

"Potential to provoke" reduced

Kim Jong-Il, top leader of the DPRK, has said that his country was ready to resume the six-party talks without preconditions, arguing his country adheres to the goal of denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula.

The talks, which involves the DPRK, the ROK, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia, were launched in 2003, but got bogged down in Dec. 2008 after finishing the sixth round, and the DPRK quit the talks in April 2009.

Tensions have flared off and on since on the peninsula, including the sinking of a ROK submarine last year that was blamed on the DPRK and killed 46 sailors, and the DPRK shelling the same year of the Yeonpyeong Island, which killed four South Korean civilians, the first since a truce put an end to their three-year civil conflict in 1953.

In the 2005 joint statement, seen as the most important result of the six-party talks, the DPRK committed itself to abandoning all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs and returning, at an early date, to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and to IAEA safeguards.

In the statement, the U.S. affirmed that it has no nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula and has no intention to attack or invade the DPRK with nuclear or conventional weapons, while the ROK reaffirmed its commitment not to receive or deploy nuclear weapons in accordance with the 1992 Joint Declaration of the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

A study by the CSIS think tank found that negotiations "do reduce the DPRK potential to provoke," Cha said.

"Thus, dialogue may not get denuclearization, but it does help manage the situation, avert a crisis (in an election year), and possibly offer small victories in freezing elements of the program, " he wrote in an email to reporters. "It's not great, but it may be all we can hope for."