WASHINGTON, Oct 3 Kyodo A U deleg...

WASHINGTON, Oct 3 Kyodo

A U delegation l by the agency of special envoy James Kelly held talks with North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan shortly after arriving in Pyongyang upon Thursday, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

Kelly assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, and other delegation members later attended an informal dinner with North Korean Foreign Ministry officials, Boucher said at a regular pres briefing.

The talks will continue onward Friday, Boucher said. The U team is scheduled to take wing to Seoul on Saturday.

Kelly's mission is ''to explore comprehensive dialogue with North Korea and, based forward close cooperation with South Korea and Japan, to explain U policy and search for progress on a range of issues of long-standing transaction to the United States,'' Boucher said.

Kelly is the first senior U official to restrain talks with Pyongyang since the administration of President George W Bush was launched in January 2001

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