TOKYO —

The top Japanese and South Korean nuclear negotiators will meet in Tokyo on Tuesday afternoon to discuss how to proceed with the six-party talks on North Korea’s denuclearization which have hit a snag over the verification of the North’s nuclear declaration, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said Monday. The talks between Akitaka Saiki, the director general of the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, and Kim Sook, special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs for the South Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry, will come on the heels of Kim’s meeting with their U.S. counterpart in New York last Friday. Saiki is also expected to brief Kim on Japan’s working-level negotiations with North Korea last week, including an agreement for the North to complete by fall its promised reinvestigation into cases of past abductions of Japanese nationals.

The second stage of Pyongyang’s denuclearization under a six-party accord struck last year has hit a snag over how to verify North Korea’s declaration of its nuclear activities and who will be involved. The North has yet to agree with China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States on the verification protocol. In New York on Friday, Christopher Hill, U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, stressed that North Korea should provide a complete verification plan that complies with ‘‘international standards’’ if it is to be removed from Washington’s list of state sponsors of terrorism. The United States has postponed the actual delisting of North Korea from Aug. 10, the earliest possible date for removal after U.S. President George W. Bush notified Congress of his intention to do so in late June. Tuesday’s talks will also follow foreign ministerial talks between China and South Korea in Seoul last week, and between China and Japan in Beijing on Sunday.

Kyodo

3 Comments

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  angelheart at 10:30 AM JST - 19th August

  Is it just me who finds the use of the word 'nuke' too casual here? Would it trouble the writer too much to actually use the full word 'nuclear'. I mean, is this a casual web blog between friends or a national news website?

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  OssanULTRA at 11:54 AM JST - 19th August

  Agreed. "Nuke" is really unprofessional. It should be "Nuclear".

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  dennis0bauer at 03:01 PM JST - 19th August

  Sarge or it will be a nuke wasteland, oops i mean nuclear wasteland

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