A hacked document released by WikiLeaks suggests that former U.S. President Bill Clinton proposed to North Korea in 2009 that Pyongyang pursue direct talks with the U.S. and six-party nuclear negotiations at the same time.
The eight-page document was attached to a hacked email sent to John Podesta, the former president's chief of staff and now chairman of the Hillary Clinton campaign.
According to the secret-spilling Web site, the former U.S. president made the proposal when he met with then-North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on August fourth, 2009, during his visit to the North to negotiate the release of two American journalists.
The document said Clinton proposed that the North Korean leadership debate among themselves whether it would be possible both to pursue bilateral U.S.-North Korea talks and rekindle the six-party talks to take advantage of the relations that the new Obama administration had built with China, Japan, South Korea and Russia.
In response, Kim Jong-il said that the North would have to "think about ways to save the six-party talks while pursuing bilateral talks" and that neglecting bilateral talks while pursuing six-party negotiations would not resolve hostilities between Washington and Pyongyang.
The email between Clinton's longtime confidante Doug Band and Stanford University professor David Straub was forwarded to Podesta. Band and Straub were present at the meeting between Clinton and Kim.
Source: KBS World Radio