Lee, Hatoyama call for resumption of N. Korea nuclear negotiations

By Byun Duk-kun
SEOUL, Oct. 9 (Yonhap) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Japanese Prime
Minister Yukio Hatoyama agreed Friday to continue to work closely to denuclearize
North Korea, urging the communist nation to immediately return to six-nation
nuclear talks.
"The president stressed the need to continue implementing U.N. sanctions on North
Korea while trying to bring the North back to the six-party talks," an official
at Seoul's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said of the Lee-Hatoyama summit held
here.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il told China's Prime Minister Wen Jiabao earlier
this week that Pyongyang may rejoin the multilateral nuclear forum, depending on
the outcome of its bilateral talks with the United States.
The North quit the forum, membered by South Korea, the U.S., China, Russia and
Japan, in April following U.N. condemnation of its long-range rocket launch. The
U.N. imposed more sanctions on the North after the communist nation conducted its
second atomic test in May.
It was Hatoyama's first trip to Seoul since coming into office last month. He
and the South Korean president held their first bilateral summit last month on
the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
The leaders were set to depart later Friday for Beijing where they will hold a
three-way summit with the Chinese premier, who was expected to brief them on the
outcome of his meeting with the North Korean leader during his trip to Pyongyang
earlier this week.
The South Korean president asked for Japan's cooperation and support for the G-20
economic summit set to be held here in November 2010, according to the Cheong Wa
Dae official.
bdk@yna.co.kr
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