The United States was hopeful that North Korea will resume six-nation negotiations aimed at keeping the Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons, the White House said Tuesday, North Korean officials expressed their commitment to the talks during a meeting Monday in New York but did not agree on a timetable for restarting dialogue that has been stalled for a year, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "North Korea expressed their commitment to the six-party process, but they did not indicate a date when they would be returning to the talks," McClellan said. U.S. and North Korean officials met at the United Nations for direct talks. Because the two countries do not have formal diplomatic relations, they occasionally communicate at the United Nations, dpa reported. The United States - along with China, Japan, South Korea and Russia - have held three rounds of so-far unsuccessful negotiations with North Korea to persuade Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons, dpa reported. --More 2322 Local Time 2022 GMT
