US, North Korea to meet in New York March 5-6

WASHINGTON, Feb 28 (Reuters) The United States and North Korea will hold working group talks in New York on March 5-6 on the normalisation of relations, the US State Department today said but played down expectations of any breakthrough.

''I would caution you that this meeting is just a first step. It is an initial conversation,'' US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters. ''Don't look at it as a meeting that is going to produce immediate results. Nobody is going to come out the front door and wave a piece of paper with some agreement on it.'' Such talks are envisaged under the February 13 agreement in which North Korea agreed to take steps toward nuclear disarmament in exchange for 0 million in aid.

The agreement, reached four months after Pyongyang stunned the world with its first nuclear test, requires the secretive communist state to shut down the reactor at the heart of its nuclear ambitions and to allow international inspections.

The deal also called for a working group on the normalisation of US-North Korean relations to meet within 30 days. McCormack said the United States would be represented in New York by Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill and North Korea by its top nuclear negotiator Kim Kye-gwan.

He said Kim would arrive in San Francisco on or around March 1 and would hold meetings with non-governmental organisations and others there before traveling to New York on March 2.

REUTERS SI MIR BST2121