TOKYO: Washington's point man on North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, said Tuesday he would consider visiting Pyongyang in a bid to revive stalled talks on dismantling the communist regime's nuclear programme.Asked about a possible trip to Pyongyang, Bosworth told reporters in Tokyo that ‘this is something we will be considering over the next few weeks.’ But the envoy, wrapping up a tour of countries involved in the negotiations aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear programme, said it was too early to say when any visit could happen. "That of course does not depend entirely on us," he added."I think I will go back to Washington now and we will have consultations there... and then probably be in touch with our partners out here in Asia." Bosworth said the United States was prepared to hold bilateral talks with Pyongyang, reiterating the foreign policy of US President Barack Obama.The North vowed to permanently quit the six-way talks after the UN Security Council condemned the launch, and has also threatened to conduct a new nuclear test.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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