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Japan in NKorea talks with US, China
2009-07-09
TOKYO (AFP) - Japan on Thursday sought to increase diplomatic pressure on North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons programme, talking with Washington and Beijing about ways to bring Pyongyang back to negotiations. Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone in a phone call told US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that North Korea's recent missile launches posed "a direct and significant threat" to Japan, the foreign ministry said. The pair reaffirmed their intention to press UN members to implement a Security Council resolution that aims to punish the communist state for its second nuclear test, conducted in May, the ministry said. Clinton and Nakasone also reiterated plans to tighten cooperation with South Korea on the issue, the Japanese ministry said. The discussion came before senior Japanese diplomats met with visiting Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, who chaired the now stalled six-way talks on North Korean nuclear disarmament. Wu's visit is part of a tour of the other countries involved in the talks -- Russia, the United States, Japan and South Korea. After meeting Wu, Japanese negotiator Akitaka Saiki said the two men discussed ways to rebuild the six-party framework, including the possibility of holding five-way talks without North Korea. "Including new approaches, we exchanged views on various methods in order to put the six-way talks back on track," Saiki told reporters, without elaborating. "I told him it was important that we consider various methods in order to revive the framework," he said. On Wednesday, US President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, meeting at the Group of Eight summit in Italy, agreed on the need to maintain pressure on North Korea. Japanese media reported Thursday that Japan, China and South Korea were trying to set up a July 25 meeting of their foreign ministers, to be followed by separate talks among national leaders at a later date.
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