(LEAD) Top S. Korean, U.S. diplomats to meet over N. Korea: source

(ATTN: UPDATES with phone talks with Russian foreign minister, other details)
By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, May 27 (Yonhap) -- South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan will visit
Washington early next month for talks with his American counterpart Hillary
Clinton on countermeasures against North Korea's nuclear test and continued
threats, a senior government source said Wednesday.

"South Korea and the United States are in consultations on Minister Yu's trip
plan," the source said, asking not to be named. "A schedule will be fixed soon."
The importance of close cooperation between the allies has grown as North Korea
continues provocative steps including the second nuclear test on Monday and
test-launch of several short-range missiles.
Yu and Clinton will send a clear message to North Korea that such an intolerable
act will not go unpunished and they will also discuss the next step, added the
source.
The 15-member council is working to set the level of punishment. Japan and the
U.S., assisted by South Korea, submitted a draft of new resolution that calls for
imposing additional sanctions on Pyongyang and bolstering the existing ones.
A defiant North Korea issued verbal threats again.
The communist nation's military warned earlier Wednesday that it will respond
militarily to active participation by South Korea in the Proliferation Security
Initiative (PSI), a U.S.-led campaign to interdict ships suspected of carrying
weapons of mass destruction and related materials.
The warning came a day after South Korea made a long-delayed decision to formally
join the PSI in response to the North's detonation of another nuclear bomb.
A diplomatic source in Seoul said, citing satellite photos, that the North has
already restarted the reprocessing facility in its Yongbyon nuclear complex to
produce weapons-grade plutonium.
The South Korean minister had telephone talks with Russian Foreign Minister
Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday night for consultations on the crisis, according to
officials here.
"They agreed that North Korea's nuclear test this time can never be justified,"
foreign ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young said. "They also agreed to closely
cooperate on countering North Korean provocations and seeking to resume the
six-way talks (on the North Korean nuclear program)."
In his meeting with Clinton, meanwhile, Yu also plans to discuss the agenda and
other details of the summit between President Lee Myung-bak and President Barack
Obama to be held in Washington on June 16, the source said.
lcd@yna.co.kr
(END)