Obama writes to N Korea's leader

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President Barack Obama has written a personal letter to the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, apparently urging him to return to nuclear talks.

The letter was delivered to Pyongyang by US envoy Stephen Bosworth during his three-day trip last week.

US officials have refused to reveal the contents of the letter, but reports suggest it urges North Korea to return to the six-party disarmament talks.

Mr Bosworth held discussions with North Korean officials but not Mr Kim.

Personal appeal

Following the meetings, the North Koreans hinted they might be willing to end their year-long boycott of the nuclear talks.

The US envoy himself described the talks as "quite positive" and business-like, without any heated rhetoric.

"The differences that exist were clear but it's also important that we established areas of convergence where our views were quite similar," he said.

Writing a personal appeal in a letter to a North Korean leader is relatively rare for a US president.

However President George W Bush also wrote to Mr Kim in 2007 - offering to normalise relations if North Korea fully disclosed its nuclear programmes.