Japan, U.S. seek North's concrete steps before restart of talks

+

TOKYO, Sept. 14 Kyodo -
The chief U.S. envoy on North Korea policy and a senior Japanese official
agreed Tuesday that North Korea should implement concrete steps toward its
denuclearization before the resumption of the six-party talks on Pyongyang's
nuclear programs, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said.
U.S. special representative for North Korea policy Stephen Bosworth told
Akitaka Saiki, director general of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and
Oceanian Affairs Bureau, the situation is not ripe for concerned parties to
resume the dialogue with the North, although new developments are seen in the
inter-Korean relationship.
The fresh moves include South Korea's decision to offer assistance to flood
victims in the North.
Saiki said he shares the recognition with Bosworth, noting that confidence
building procedures are needed for the restart of the six-way talks involving
the two Koreas, China, Japan, the United States and Russia, according to the
ministry.
The multilateral dialogue has been stalled since December 2008. The Japanese
official said Pyongyang should express its intention to implement a 2005 joint
statement by the six parties by taking concrete actions.
The parties reached an accord in 2005 to provide an aid package for the North
if it abandons its nuclear programs.
Bosworth and Saiki also agreed that the United States, Japan and South Korea
will continue to closely work together on this matter, according to the
ministry.
North Korea has shown willingness to return to the six-party negotiation
process and China supports it, while Japan, South Korea and the United States
are wary of the plan in the wake of the sinking of a South Korean naval vessel
in March in the Yellow Sea for which North Korea has been blamed.
The U.S. envoy is on a three-nation Asian trip for consultation with South
Korea, Japan and China on the North's nuclear programs. He arrived in Tokyo
from Seoul earlier in the day.
On Monday, Bosworth said in a meeting with Shin Kak Soo, South Korea's acting
foreign minister, ''At some point in the not too distant future, we can be back
engaged,'' according to Yonhap News Agency.
The South Korean news agency also quoted the envoy as saying the United States
looks ''forward to a process of bilateral contacts and eventually multilateral
contacts that would hopefully result in a resumption of the six-party
process.''
Bosworth told reporters upon arriving at Haneda airport in Tokyo that the first
process of bilateral contacts would involve ''everybody'' in the six-way
framework.
==Kyodo