Barack Obama sends letter to North Korean leader

US president Barack Obama has sent a personal letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong II, urging him to come back to the six-party talks and meet its international obligations on the issue of nuclear weapons.
 
The letter was delivered to the North Korean government by the special US representative for North Korea Policy, ambassador Stephen Bosworth, during his recent trip to Pyongyang, the White House confirmed yesterday, but refrained from going into the contents of the letter.
 
"Without getting into the details of diplomatic correspondence, the president's letter to the North Koreans coincided with and was delivered by Mr Bosworth, who was there
to get the North Koreans, who are isolated in a way that the Iranians will soon be from the international community, based on their provocative actions -- to convince them to do what is in their interest, and that's come back to the table and ultimately live up to the agreements they signed to give up and to denuclearise the Korean Peninsula," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters.
 
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly gave an identical response to the issue at his daily press briefing.

"I think one can feel very confident that it concerned what our very simple agenda was for the visit of ambassador Bosworth, and that was to get North Korea to come back to the six-party talks," Kelly said.