party talks. "The U.S. side clarified its official stand to recognize the DPRK (the Democratic People,s Republic of Korea) as a sovereign state, and Washington promised not to invade the DPRK and to hold bilateral talks within the framework of the six-party talks," the Chinese government,s official Xinhua news agency quoted KCNA as saying after the officials met in Beijing. "The DPRK side interpreted the U.S. side's expression of its stand as a retraction of its remark designating the former as an outpost of tyranny, and decided to return to the six-party talks," KCNA said. Rice left Beijing for Thailand later on Sunday, on a trip that will also take her to South Korea and Japan. --SP 2300 Local Time 2000 GMT
