Six-party format should be kept: Japan
(AFP)Updated: 2006-12-24 11:37
Japan's Foreign Minister Taro Aso has said the six-party framework for talks on ending North Korea's nuclear program should be maintained, adding there was "no need to hurry" to reach a deal.
 According to Japan's Foreign Minister Taro Aso, the six-party framework for talks on ending North Korea's nuclear program should be maintained, adding there was "no need to hurry" to reach a deal[AFP]  |
The talks -- involving the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States -- wrapped up in Beijing after five days of meetings with no progress made and no date set for another round.
The negotiations snagged on North Korea's refusal to engage in substantive discussions until Washington lifted financial sanctions imposed last year which have left millions of dollars of North Korean funds frozen in a Macau bank.
After North Korea's first nuclear test in October, the UN Security Council slapped wide-ranging weapons-related sanctions on Pyongyang.
While Japan imposed its own tough sanctions including a sweeping ban on all North Korean imports, Aso said there was no immediate plan to take further action.
"We have more measures in mind, but we are not in a position to implement new ones right now," Aso said.
The six nations had resumed the intermittent, three-year-old forum last week hoping to make real progress toward the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
But following its atom bomb test October 9, an emboldened North Korea unveiled a long list of demands at the opening of the talks, effectively scuppering any chance of real progress
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