Kerry: US not to hold talks for sake of talks with North Korea

The US will not hold talks with North Korea until the country is ready to negotiate for verifiable denuclearization, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday, the Seoul-based Yonhap News Agency reported. "We have yet to see evidence that North Korea is prepared to meet its obligations and negotiate the verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Let me be clear, the US will not accept North Korea as a nuclear state, it will not accept talks for the sake of talks," Kerry said in a joint press conference in Seoul with South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, according to the report. "The DPRK must show that it will negotiate and abide by its commitment regarding denuclearization (to resume disarmament talks)," he said. Kerry arrived in Seoul earlier in the day on the first leg of his Asia trip focused on the denuclearization of North Korea. The Yun-Kerry talks came amid diplomatic efforts to resume the long-stalled six-party talks aimed at resolving North Korea's nuclear weapons program, which also involve China, Japan and Russia. The talks have been suspended since late 2008. Kerry once again confirmed the US rejection of the North's recent proposal that Seoul and Washington cancel their joint military drills planned for late February. Citing provocations posed by the joint drills, the North has threatened to cancel the inter-Korean reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War. There is no legitimate excuse for linking the two different issues, Kerry said. "I urge complete separation of these two and not the use of one as an excuse to somehow condition the other." Earlier in the day, Kerry paid a visit to South Korean President Park Geun-hye and stressed the importance of the alliance between the two countries and the seriousness of North Korea's nuclear program. Kerry will head to Beijing on Friday for discussions mainly on North Korea and climate change, Yonhap quoted US officials as saying. The secretary is also scheduled to visit Jakarta and Abu Dhabi before returning to Washington early next week.