S Korea-Japan nuke envoys

SEOUL, Jan. 29 (Yonhap) -- Top South Korean and Japanese nuclear negotiators on Thursday discussed how to advance the stalled six-way talks on the North Korean nuclear program, officials here said.

Seoul's envoy Kim Sook and his counterpart Akitaka Saiki had a luncheon meeting
in Seoul.
"They had wide-ranging exchange of opinions on the six-way talks," foreign
ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young said.
He refused to elaborate, saying related officials will later provide a separate
press briefing on the talks.
Saiki, the head of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs
Bureau, arrived here earlier in the day for a two-day stay during which he will
also attend an annual meeting of Japanese envoys here, the officials added. Japan
has consulates in Busan and Jeju Island besides its embassy in Seoul.
Moon said it is premature to expect the future of the disarmament talks, whose
last round in December fell apart amid disputes over ways to verify Pyongyang's
nuclear program.
"We will have to wait and see," he said.
North Korea and the U.S. sent positive messages on the nuclear talks which also
involve South Korea, China, Russia, and Japan.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il said in his latest meeting with Wang Jiarui, head
of the Chinese Communist Party's International Department, that he is still
committed to denuclearization through the multilateral talks.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton immediately responded by saying that the
six-party talks are "essential" to ending North Korea's nuclear weapons
ambitions.
"With respect to North Korea, the six-party talks are essential," she said
Tuesday in her first news briefing, adding the multilateral talks have been "a
useful forum for participants to deal with the challenge of North Korea's nuclear
program, and the other issues that are part of the North Korean agenda."
lcd@yna.co.kr
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