US congressman meets N.Korean leaders
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-01-11 15:28

A U.S. congressman who met high-ranking North Korean officials said Tuesday he discussed the North's nuclear program and human rights issues at great length.

Rep. Tom Lantos, the ranking Democrat on the House International Relations Committee, stopped in Beijing after a three-day visit to Pyongyang.

Senior U.S. congressman Tom Lantos (L), seen in a picture handed out by his office, shakes hands with North Korea's Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun during a meeting in Pyongyang January 10, 2005. Lantos had wide-ranging talks with North Korean leaders including "nuclear matters", amid concern about stalled six-party talks on the North's nuclear weapons programme. [Reuters]

"I had very substantive, serious discussions on a range of issues including nuclear matters, human rights matters and the economy," Lantos told reporters when he arrived in Beijing on Tuesday.

He did not give any details but said he would report to US President Bush about the meeting when he returned to the United States.

The North's official News Agency KCNA said Lantos held talks with Yang Hyong Sop, vice president of the Presidium of the North's Supreme People's Assembly, at the Mansudae Assembly Hall.

Lantos also met North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun on Monday, KCNA said.

The United States, the two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia have been struggling to hold a new round of talks on the North's nuclear weapons programs. Three rounds, hosted by China, have been held since 2003, but there have been no breakthroughs.

Pyongyang said last week that it was willing to abandon its nuclear programs if Washington gives up "a hostile policy aimed at toppling our system," a spokesman of North Korea's Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by KCNA.

Separately a bipartisan congressional delegation organized by Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., also visits Pyongyang this week.

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