President Barack Obama has written a personal letter to the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, apparently¹ urging him to return to nuclear talks.

奥巴马总统向朝鲜领导金正日写了一封私人信件，意图说服他回归核问题会谈。

US officials have refused to disclose the exact contents of the letter

The letter was delivered to Pyongyang by US envoy² 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裁军，解除武装 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抵制，拒绝参加 of the nuclear talks.

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

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

Writing a personal appeal in a letter to a North Korean leader is relatively⁴ rare for a US president.

However President George W Bush also wrote to Mr Kim in 2007 - offering to normalise relations if North Korea fully⁵ disclosed揭露，公开 its nuclear programmes.