U.S., N. Korea to Meet Again on Nuclear Issue

U.S. and North Korean diplomats agreed Thursday to meet again today to continue efforts to defuse a crisis over Pyongyang’s decision to withdraw from a treaty aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear arms.

Diplomatic sources would not comment on the substance of Thursday’s session--the third since June 2--but a U.S. spokesman said the talks will continue today.

U.S. officials would meanwhile brief representatives of South Korea, Japan, Britain, France, Russia and China on the negotiations. The previous meetings between senior U.S. and North Korean diplomats have yielded no apparent progress.

Pyongyang heightened suspicions that it is engaged in a clandestine nuclear weapons program when it announced on March 12 its intention to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty rather than submit two sites to inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency.