WASHINGTON- U.S. special envoy Stephen Bosworth will not visit North Korea if he goes to Asia soon nor does he have plans to meet North Korean officials elsewhere in the region, the U.S. State Department said on Thursday.

He will not go to North Korea, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters, adding that he did not envisage the U.S. envoy meeting North Korean officials elsewhere in the region should he make such a trip.

South Korean media said on Tuesday the North had invited Bosworth for nuclear talks next month but U.S. officials have declined to confirm this, saying that they had received no formal invitation though it is no secret that the North would like bilateral talks with the United States.

U.S. officials have repeatedly said they are willing to hold direct talks with North Korea but only as part of six-country disarmament negotiations involving the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.

The six-party talks, hosted by the North's biggest benefactor China, aim to get North Korea to abandon all its nuclear programs but broke down at the end of last year with Pyongyang saying the format was dead.

(Editing by Sandra Maler)

China Japan Russia