US Wants Participation of South Korea, Japan in DPRK Nuclear Talks

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, June 15, 2003

US Wants Participation of South Korea, Japan in DPRK Nuclear Talks

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The United States said on Friday that participation by South Korea and Japan "is indispensable" in talks to break the impasse over the nuclear issue of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

The United States, South Korea and Japan pledged to work together to seek a peaceful solution to the DPRK nuclear issue in a joint statement issued at the end of a two-day trilateral talks in Honolulu of Hawaii.

Attending the talks held within the framework of the Trilateral Coordination and Oversight Group (TCOG) were US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs James Kelly, South Korea's Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuck, and Director General of Japan's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau Mitoji Yabunaka.

Kelly said the trio are committed to resolving the DPRK nuclearissue peacefully, stressing that they will "see a complete and verifiable and irreversible end to their nuclear weapons program."

"We're all committed to do that in a peaceful means with dialogue," he said. "We went through the details of how to get there." He did not elaborate on what steps would be taken or what other issues were discussed.

Referring to the talks held late in April in Beijing by China, the United States and the DPRK, the participants agreed "on the necessity of multilateral talks expanded to include other interested parties."

The DPRK nuclear dispute flared up in October last year when US officials said the DPRK admitted it had a clandestine nuclear program in violation of a 1994 agreement with the United States.

In November, Washington and its allies suspended oil shipments to the DPRK promised under the agreement, and the DPRK responded by moving to reactivate its frozen nuclear facilities.

South Korea and Japan, which are excluded from the Beijing talks, have been calling for being included in future multilateraltalks on the DPRK nuclear issue.

The Honolulu talks came after the DPRK admitted publicly for the first time on Monday that it was seeking nuclear deterrent force to counter the US threat.

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