U.S. Withdraws Offer to Resume Security Talks

NORTH KOREA

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The Bush administration has withdrawn an offer to resume security talks with North Korea, U.S. officials said, four days after North Korean naval vessels fired on South Korean patrol boats, killing four sailors.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said U.S. officials informed North Korea’s United Nations mission Monday that a proposed meeting next Wednesday in Pyongyang, the North’s capital, was off because North Korea had failed to confirm the date. But Boucher acknowledged that the attack “had created an unacceptable atmosphere in which to conduct the talks” on issues such as missile sales, security on the Korean peninsula and nuclear inspections.