US rules out any direct talks with North Korea

Ruling out any direct talks with North Korea on nuclear disarmament negotiations, the US on Friday said Pyongyang could only be engaged multilaterally through the six-party mechanism.

Ruling out any direct talks with North Korea on nuclear disarmament negotiations, the US on Friday said Pyongyang could only be engaged multilaterally through the six-party mechanism.

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The US statement comes in the wake of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon supporting direct talks between America and North Korea.

"Our approach on North Korea is we feel very strongly that we have to engage North Korea multilaterally through the six-party mechanism," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said at his daily press briefing.

"That is our approach and that is the approach of our five partners in the Six-Party Talks as well," Kelly said.

The countries that are part of the six-party nuclear disarmament negotiations with North Korea are -- South Korea, Japan, China, Russia and the US.

North Korea withdrew from the negotiations after the UN censured its long-range missile test in April.