(2nd LD) FMs eye resumption of 6-way talks in renewed political climate

(ATTN: CHANGES slug, headline, lead paras to update with official's comments on
results of FM talks, ADDS background, RESTRUCTURES)
By Tony Chang

SHANGHAI, Sept. 28 (Yonhap) -- Foreign ministers from South Korea, China and
Japan on Monday renewed their commitment to work closely to bring North Korea
back to denuclearization talks, affirming that the door to dialogue was still
being held open, a ranking Seoul official said after their talks.
South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan, his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi,
and Japan's newly named Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada gathered here for their
third annual foreign ministers' meeting.
The top diplomats discussed the North's nuclear stalemate at length during the
two-hour, closed-door discussions, according to the Seoul official.
"(The ministers) reached a common consensus on the need for complete
denuclearization, the need to work closely to resume the six-party talks, and the
need for the three nations play constructive roles in maintaining peace and
stability in Northeast Asia," the official said, requesting to be unnamed.
"There were discussions about the recent shift in political climate (regarding
North Korea) in the past few months, and there was, given such changes, also
anticipation of renewed dialogue with North Korea," the official said.
Pyongyang withdrew from the six-party talks following international sanctions
punishing it for its long-range rocket in April, regarded by the West as a test
of its ballistic missile technology banned under earlier U.N. Security Council
resolutions.
The communist regime has softened its provocative stance in recent months,
releasing detained South Korean and U.S. citizens, agreeing to inter-Korean
family reunions, and easing restrictions on an industrial complex run jointly
with the South.
The moves are regarded as conciliatory gestures to Seoul and Washington to signal
it is ready to talk with the international community. The U.S. is expected to
soon engage North Korea bilaterally as part of efforts to revive the six-party
talks also involving South Korea, China, Russia and Japan.
The official said Yu explained South Korea's proposal for a "grand bargain" in
dealing with North Korea.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak made the proposal last week while visiting
New York, outlining it as a single-step resolution offering a complete package of
incentives for Pyongyang if it gives up "key elements" of its nuclear weapons
program.
The proposal had not received any immediate positive responses from other members
of the six-party talks.
"Yu explained that (Seoul) has made the proposal based on past consultations with
other parties of the talks to tackle the issue in a fundamental way, assessing
that approaching the North with phased agreements has its problems, given their
history of breaching past accords," the official said.
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang earlier released a joint statement at a press
conference saying the three countries agreed on the need to maintain
"comprehensive cooperations in a future-oriented manner." The statement did not
include any references to North Korea.
The three ministers also agreed to fine-tune details of the upcoming three-way
summit set for Oct. 10 in Beijing and exchanged opinions on various topics,
including the international economic and financial situation, U.N. reform and
climate change, according to Yang.
The three countries launched the ministerial talks in 2007 and have since taken
turns hosting, with the inaugural gathering held on South Korea's resort island
of Jeju and the second session in Tokyo last year. They tentatively agreed to
hold their fourth foreign ministerial meeting in South Korea next year.
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