(READ): US must do more to improve Cuba ties: Richardson…

Source: Democratic Underground & Agence France-Presse

US must do more to improve Cuba ties: Richardson
by Carlos Batista Carlos Batista – 1 hr 23 mins ago

HAVANA (AFP) – Washington should do more to improve its relationship with Havana, which in turn needs to show flexibility, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson said Friday during a visit to communist Cuba.

Richardson, formerly a US lawmaker and diplomat who has been a frequent special envoy in diplomatic crises, met with officials including National Assembly speaker Ricardo Alarcon during the five-day trip.

The US governor, who is half Mexican, grew up partly in Mexico City and speaks Spanish, said he would pass along his recommendations to the Barack Obama administration.

“Normalizing relations is going to take time, it is a complicated thing and there are a lot of issues to address. After 50 years (of strained ties) you cannot change everything in a year.

“It will take time, but we have to do it,” Richardson, 61, told reporters at a briefing at the close of his visit.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090828/pl_afp/cubauspolit…

READ: Richardson Hails Warmer Signals From North Korea…

Source: Newser.com

(Newser Summary) – The tentative thaw continues in North Korea relations. On the heels of Bill Clinton’s trip, Bill Richardson hosted two high-ranking officials from the North today at the governor’s mansion in New Mexico and declared that Pyongyang is sending a “positive vibration” about detente. “What I sense was, one, the temperature has really cooled down in the relationship,” Richardson told MSNBC. “I think the Clinton visit has helped a lot.”

Richardson said the diplomats suggested that the North is open to renewing direct talks with the US on its nuclear weapons, but Pyongyang does not want to return to the six-party roundtable that includes South Korea. “The North Koreans clearly feel they are owed something, that they released the two Americans that they want something in return,” said Richardson, who has visited the country in the past as an informal envoy.

—John Johnson