ID :
196640
Sat, 07/23/2011 - 07:38
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/196640
The shortlink copeid
Foreign ministers from S. Korea, U.S., Japan to meet on N. Korea
By Kim Deok-hyun
BALI, Indonesia, July 23 (Yonhap) -- Top diplomats from South Korea, the United States and Japan planned to hold a trilateral meeting here on Saturday to coordinate their joint strategy toward North Korea, officials said.
The trilateral talks among South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Japanese Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto come a day after South and North Korea agreed to make joint efforts to resume multilateral talks over the North's nuclear program.
"During the talks, the three ministers are expected to discuss North Korea's nuclear program and other security issues," a senior South Korean diplomat said.
Kim and Clinton plan to hold a bilateral meeting before the trilateral talks, the diplomat said.
On the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum in Bali, the chief nuclear negotiators from South and North Korea met on Friday for the first time since 2008 and agreed to jointly work toward reopening the stalled six-party talks on the North's nuclear program.
The agreement between South Korean chief nuclear envoy Wi Sung-lac and his newly appointed North Korean counterpart Ri Yong-ho raised hopes for the resumption of the six-party negotiations, which also involve the U.S., China, Russia and Japan.
The multilateral process has been stalled since December 2008 due to the North's boycott and tensions over Pyongyang's deadly attacks on Seoul last year.
After sharply raising tensions, North Korea has called for the unconditional resumption of the negotiations, but Seoul and Washington have demanded that Pyongyang, which has a track record of abusing the negotiations to extract concessions, first prove that it is serious about giving up its nuclear program.
The nuclear standoff gained urgency after Pyongyang revealed last year that it has a uranium enrichment facility. Uranium, if highly enriched, could become weapons grade, providing the provocative regime with a second way of building atomic bombs after plutonium.
kdh@yna.co.kr
(END)
BALI, Indonesia, July 23 (Yonhap) -- Top diplomats from South Korea, the United States and Japan planned to hold a trilateral meeting here on Saturday to coordinate their joint strategy toward North Korea, officials said.
The trilateral talks among South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Japanese Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto come a day after South and North Korea agreed to make joint efforts to resume multilateral talks over the North's nuclear program.
"During the talks, the three ministers are expected to discuss North Korea's nuclear program and other security issues," a senior South Korean diplomat said.
Kim and Clinton plan to hold a bilateral meeting before the trilateral talks, the diplomat said.
On the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum in Bali, the chief nuclear negotiators from South and North Korea met on Friday for the first time since 2008 and agreed to jointly work toward reopening the stalled six-party talks on the North's nuclear program.
The agreement between South Korean chief nuclear envoy Wi Sung-lac and his newly appointed North Korean counterpart Ri Yong-ho raised hopes for the resumption of the six-party negotiations, which also involve the U.S., China, Russia and Japan.
The multilateral process has been stalled since December 2008 due to the North's boycott and tensions over Pyongyang's deadly attacks on Seoul last year.
After sharply raising tensions, North Korea has called for the unconditional resumption of the negotiations, but Seoul and Washington have demanded that Pyongyang, which has a track record of abusing the negotiations to extract concessions, first prove that it is serious about giving up its nuclear program.
The nuclear standoff gained urgency after Pyongyang revealed last year that it has a uranium enrichment facility. Uranium, if highly enriched, could become weapons grade, providing the provocative regime with a second way of building atomic bombs after plutonium.
kdh@yna.co.kr
(END)
