A senior North Korean official told U.N. chief Boutros Boutros-Ghali his government hopes to reach "a negotiated, peaceful solution" to the dispute over Pyongyang's suspected development of nuclear weapons, the official North Korean Central News Agency reported Friday.
In a dispatch monitored in Tokyo, the agency said Boutros-Ghali held talks with North Korean Vice Premier and Foreign Minister Kim Yong Nam in Pyongyang after crossing the heavily fortified South Korean border.The visit is the first by a U.N. leader to the communist country in 14 years.
"It is our consistent position to achieve a negotiated, peaceful solution of the nuclear issue," Kim told Boutros-Ghali at a reception Friday night, KCNA reported.
Boutros-Ghali's trip comes amid reports that North Korean and U.S. officials have made progress in negotiations in New York on international inspections of the North's nuclear facilities.
While agreeing to checks of five sites, North Korea has steadfastly resisted inspections of two, heightening suspicions that it is developing nuclear weapons.
"If the United States puts unjustifiable pressure on North Korea we would have no other choice but to take decisive measures for defending the nation's sovereignty," Kim was quoted as saying.