Japan, S. Korea, U.S. nuke negotiators to meet in Tokyo on Wed.

TOKYO, Dec. 1 Kyodo - Chief nuclear negotiators from Japan, South Korea and the United States will meet in Tokyo on Wednesday to discuss issues surrounding the upcoming six-party talks on denuclearizing North Korea, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said Monday.
The trilateral meeting was arranged prior to the next round of the six-way
talks expected to begin in Beijing on Dec. 8, with North Korea and the United
States clashing over the issue of taking samples from the North's nuclear
facilities as a means of verifying a declaration submitted by Pyongyang on its
nuclear programs.
Akitaka Saiki, chief of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian
Affairs Bureau, and his U.S. and South Korean counterparts -- Christopher Hill
and Kim Sook -- will hold talks at the ministry, the ministry said.
The three are likely to seek common ground on taking samples from the North's
nuclear facilities among other issues, ahead of an anticipated meeting between
Hill, U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, and
his North Korean counterpart Kim Kye Gwan in Singapore on Thursday, as well as
the ensuing six-party talks also involving China and Russia.
In addition to the trilateral talks, Saiki will meet bilaterally with Hill on
Tuesday and with Kim, special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and
security affairs of the South Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry, on
Wednesday, the ministry said.
Senior Japanese and U.S. diplomats involved in the talks agreed last week on
the need for North Korea to promise in writing that it will allow relevant
parties to take samples from its nuclear facilities.
==Kyodo