US envoy invited to North Korea

North Korea has invited the US envoy overseeing ties with the prickly state to visit for nuclear talks next month, as Washington pushes sanctions against Pyongyang.

Reclusive North Korea, which has made a series of rare conciliatory gestures this month, also agreed to hold talks with Seoul from today on, reallowing reunions of families separated by the 1950-1953 Korean War. Pyongyang stopped these visits two years ago.