US, Japan, S.Korea Open Talks on DPRK Nuclear Issue

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, June 13, 2003

US, Japan, S.Korea Open Talks on DPRK Nuclear Issue

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Representatives of the United States, South Korea and Japan on Thursday opened a two-day meeting in Honolulu and the nuclear issue of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) was expected to top the agenda.

US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs James Kelly, South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-Hyuck and Director General of Japan's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau Mitoji Yabunaka attended the trilateral meetings of the Trilateral Coordination and Oversight Group (TCOG).

No details were disclosed about the closed-door talks, but the DPRK nuclear issue was expected to dominate the TCOG meetings as the three parties were trying to coordinate their stances on possible future peace talks on the Korean peninsula to break an eight-month-long impasse.

"The United States, South Korea and Japan will come together to review developments on the Korean peninsula," deputy spokesman of the US State Department Philip Reeker said on Tuesday.

"In Honolulu, we'll be working together towards a peaceful and diplomatic solution," he said, adding that Washington was seeking nothing less than a "complete, verifiable and irreversible elimination of North Korea's nuclear weapons program."

Reeker said the participants would issue a joint statement at the end of the talks, which came after the DPRK admitted publicly for the first time on Monday that it was seeking nuclear weapons to counter the threat by the United States.

Meanwhile, US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said that a five-country meeting by the DPRK, China, Japan, South Koreaand the United States on the DPRK nuclear issue could be held within two months.

Armitage was quoted by Kyodo news agency as saying that such talks had become more likely because Pyongyang's opposition to that format appeared to be weakening steadily.

He added that the three sides would strongly call for multilateral talks at the meeting, and hoped China would convey this stance to the DPRK.

China, United States and the DPRK held three-way talks in Beijing in April to try to resolve the standoff over the alleged DPRK's nuclear weapons program. Japan and South Korea were excluded from the talks despite their hope to attend.

Washington wants to hold multilateral talks including Pyongyang but the latter has insisted on bilateral negotiations.

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