AP Wire | 07/09/2005 | North Korea OKs talks as Rice visits Asia

AP Wire | 07/09/2005 | North Korea OKs talks as Rice visits Asia: "BEIJING - North Korea said Saturday it will abandon its yearlong boycott of nuclear disarmament talks and resume negotiations this month with the U.S. and four other nations, a breakthrough reached just as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice began a mission to end the impasse.

North Korea's vice foreign minister, Kim Gye Gwan, informed U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill that the North is prepared to return to the talks during the week of July 25.

Word of the decision came as Rice arrived in Beijing, the first stop on a four-country Asian tour devoted primarily to the North Korea situation.

For weeks, the U.S. has urged North Korea to get back to the bargaining table and take the discussions seriously.

A Bush administration official who spoke with reporters accompanying Rice said Kim told Hill that North Korea's purpose in the talks will be denuclearization and that its negotiators will be intent on making progress."