UN opens high-level dialogue with North Korea

The U.N. political chief, who just returned from North Korea, says the United Nations has opened a high-level dialogue with the reclusive communist nation and plans further discussions in the next few months.

Undersecretary-General B. Lynn Pascoe, the highest-ranking U.N. official to visit North Korea since 2004, said he had no details of future talks but said senior officials from one or two U.N. agencies plan visits to Pyongyang.

He reiterated that he had no confirmation of reports that top North Korean nuclear envoy Kim Kye Gwan was planning to come to the United States.

But he said the U.N. would be delighted to welcome any official from the North to U.N. headquarters in New York.