U.S. says no nuclear link with N.Korea food talks

By Sui-Lee Wee

BEIJING Dec 15 (Reuters) - The U.S. envoy for North Korean policy said on Thursday Washington was making no linkage between talks between the two countries on food aid and trying to get the reclusive nation back to the table to discuss its nuclear programme.

Robert King, the State Department's special envoy for human rights in North Korea, was meeting with North Korean officials in Beijing to discuss Washington's conditions for resuming aid halted in 2009 amid disagreements over transparency and monitoring.

The U.S. State Department said the North Korean delegation would include Ri Gun, Pyongyang's deputy negotiator for stalled six-party nuclear disarmament talks, but U.S. officials insisted there was no link between the food talks and the nuclear impasse.

U.S. officials have cautioned that no decision was imminent.

"The short answer is there isn't any linkage between this issue of the provision of nutritional assistance to North Korea and this broader discussion that we hope to have with the North at the right time, if they do the right thing, on these issues related to denuclearisation," Special Representative for North Korea Policy Glyn Davies told reporters in Beijing.

"But I will say that we are paying close attention to how these talks on nutritional assistance go. We are looking for the north to engage in those discussions in good faith," he added.

"There's no reason that these talks will be long and protracted and drawn out. The issues are relatively straightforward. We'll be watching it but that's about the extent that I'll say there's a read across or cross over here."