The United States and North Korea will hold their second round of talks on September 1-2 to discuss normalizing ties and other bilateral issues as part of a nuclear deal, the State Department said Monday.
The meeting will be held in Geneva following the first round of talks in New York in March as part of a six-party agreement clinched on February 13, said Gonzo Gallegos, a department spokesman.
Under the pact, Pyongyang agreed to disband its nuclear weapons in return for aid and security and diplomatic guarantees.
"The US-North Korea working group will meet in Geneva on the 1st and 2nd," Gallegos told reporters. He did not say what would be discussed at the meeting.
The working group is among several set up under the February accord between North Korea and the United States, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea.
The United States had insisted at the New York talks that nothing less than complete dismantlement of North Korea's nuclear arsenal was necessary for any establishing of official ties to end more than 50 years of feuding between Washington and the reclusive hardline communist state.
Pyongyang has shut down its key Yongbyon nuclear reactor under the six-party agreement and is negotiating to move on to the next stage of declaring and disabling its nuclear program.
The "declare and disable" issue will be the highlight of the next round of six-party talks among special envoys to be held after the completion of the meetings of the working groups.
