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US urges DPRK not to quit talks
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-04-15 00:03

WASHINGTON - A senior US official on Tuesday urged the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to remain in the six-party talks, a platform designed to resolve the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula.

"The North needs to return to the six-party framework, to which it committed itself, and not take steps that will further isolate itself from the international community," said the official, who declined to be identified.

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The official spoke hours after the DPRK said it will withdraw from the six-party talks and restore its nuclear facilities that have been under a disablement process.

Prior to the announcement by Pyongyang, the UN Security Council adopted a presidential statement on the DPRK's recent rocket launch, saying it was "in contravention of Security Council Resolution 1718" and demanded the country "not conduct any further launch."

The six-party talks, involving the DPRK, the United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia, was first held in Beijing in 2003 and has made tangible progress on the issue in the following years.

The DPRK destroyed the cooling tower at its Yongbyon nuclear complex in June last year, marking a symbolic step forward toward the goal.