U.S. offers bilateral talks with N. Korea
'Pakistan Times' Monitoring Desk

SEOUL (South Korea): A U.S. envoy expressed support for China's proposal to hold informal six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear threat and offered to meet bilaterally with North Korea on the sidelines of those discussions.

U.S. envoy Christopher Hill was in Seoul on a tour of regional capitals to coordinate the international response to the North's test-firing of seven missiles on Wednesday. The tests caused an international outrage but also division over whether North Korea should be punished.

Over Chinese and Russian objections, Japan introduced a draft Security Council resolution on Friday that would impose sanctions on North Korea and order a halt to its development of ballistic missiles.

Backed by the United States, Britain and France, the resolution condemns the launches that the North conducted Wednesday despite international warnings against the move.●