South Korea, US, Japan to discuss nuclear strategy
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-02-23 11:42

Top envoys from South Korea, the United States and Japan will meet in Seoul on Saturday for in-depth talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons drive, Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon said.

The meeting will take place two weeks after North Korea said it had nuclear weapons and was pulling out indefinitely from six-party talks on the nuclear standoff.

Top envoys from South Korea, the United States and Japan will meet in Seoul on Saturday for in-depth talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons drive, Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon said. [AFP]

In a more conciliatory message on Tuesday, however, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il said the country was ready to return to talks if conditions were right.

Ban told a news briefing here that top negotiators on North Korea from the three allies would discuss the nuclear standoff on Saturday but said he was unwilling to go into details ahead of the meeting.

"There will be discussions in depth, but it would be inappropriate to say anything about what will be discussed," he said.

South Korea's deputy foreign minister Song Min-Soon will join Christopher Hill, the US assistant secretary of state-designate and Kenichiro Sasae, chief of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asia-Oceania bureau at the meeting, the foreign ministry aid.

The three allies have met for strategy sessions at significant stages in the 28-month-old standoff over North Korea's nuclear weapons drive.

Last week Japan's Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura discussed a proposal for the three-way meeting with Ban by telephone.

Japan, South Korea and the United States have been engaged in three rounds of six-nation dialogue with North Korea that also includes China and Russia.

The talks stalled in June and North Korea boycotted a fourth round scheduled for September.

North Korea said on February 10 that it had produced nuclear weapons and was withdrawing indefinitely from the talks, which aims to halt its nuclear weapons development in exchange for diplomatic and economic benefits.

Close

Today's Top News     Top World News
Beijing pushes for charter cargo flights across Straits         Bush threatens Europe on ending arms ban         Goliaths compete for nuclear plant pact         Strong quake strikes Iran, over 400 dead         N. Korea willing to return to nuclear talks         Medics venture into twilight zone	Al-Jaafari likely to be next Iraqi PM       Strong quake strikes Iran, over 400 dead       Aceh rebels drop demands for independence       Al-Zarqawi tops U.S. list of most wanted       3 hostages freed by rebels enter Jordan       N. Korea willing to return to nuclear talks