New Mexico Governor and ex-UN envoy Bill Richardson was to meet two North Korean diplomats Wednesday, his office said, amid signs of a thaw following a visit to Pyongyang by Bill Clinton. Kim Myong-Gil, a North Korean delegate to the United Nations, requested the meeting, which would take place for 'most of the day' at the governor's mansion in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Richardson spokeswoman Alarie Ray-Garcia told selfnews. The senior North Korean diplomat was to attend the talks with a deputy. Ray-Garcia did not rule out that the talks could cover the controversial nuclear program Pyongyang has pursued in defiance of the international community. But she stressed that 'the governor will not be negotiating with them in any way and is not representing the Obama administration.' The meeting comes after Clinton briefed President Barack Obama Tuesday on his talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il earlier this month. The high-stakes mission by the ex-US president resulted in the release of two US journalists held in Pyongyang. Richardson, who traveled twice to the hermit state in the 1990s to secure the release of US prisoners, has met with diplomats from North Korea's UN mission before -- in 2004 and 2006 -- in Santa Fe, Ray-Garcia recalled. The meeting at the governor's house, a sprawling hacienda overlooking the city, will be followed by discussions Thursday on renewable energy, according to the governor's office. Ray-Garcia noted the delegation had expressed interest in clean energy solutions being developed in New Mexico. The White House has insisted that Clinton's visit that freed Euna Lee and Laura Ling was a purely private affair and denied the former president delivered a message from Obama, as Washington seeks ways to cool the showdown over Pyongyang's nuclear and missile endeavors. That exchange amounted to the highest level US contact with the North Korean leadership since Pyongyang abandoned six-party talks that included the United States and South Korea on its nuclear program, tested a long range missile and conducted a nuclear test. The North has also warmed in recent days to its southern neighbor after months of hostility, making a surprise offer to relaunch cross-border tours and allow reunions of families divided for decades in the wake of the 1950-53 Korean War. Disclosing the deal with Hyundai Asan, which operates inter-Korean business ventures, the North said tours to the scenic Mount Kumgang east coast resort and to historic Kaesong city near the west coast would start anew as soon as possible. The North has also freed a South Korean Hyundai engineer and agreed to ease border restrictions that hampered operations at the Seoul-funded Kaesong industrial estate. The release of Yu Seong-jin was the North's first conciliatory gesture to the South since ties soured after Seoul's current conservative government took office in February 2008. But in a painful reminder of continuing tensions, the two countries remain separated by the Demilitarized Zone buffer area, the most heavily fortified frontier in the world. A veteran Democratic politician, Richardson served as US ambassador to the United Nations and energy secretary under Clinton. In 1996, he negotiated the release of US citizen Evan Hunziker, who had been detained for three months on suspicion of spying after swimming the Yalu river. Two years earlier, the prominent Hispanic politician helped free a US military helicopter pilot, Bobby Hall, who was shot down after straying into North Korean airspace. The former lawmaker also made a failed bid for the presidency in 2008 and was tapped by Obama to serve as commerce secretary. He later withdrew his name from consideration. 