Japan, S. Korea, U.S. agree to seek N. Korea pledge on nuke sampling

TOKYO, Dec. 3 Kyodo - Chief nuclear negotiators from Japan, South Korea and the United States agreed Wednesday to work closely to require North Korea, in writing, to allow inspectors to take samples from its nuclear facilities during the upcoming round of six-nation talks, they said.

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, respectively, reached the agreement in a trilateral meeting in
Tokyo.
''We reached an agreement that it is important for the six parties to confirm
in a document the issues of taking samples and which facilities and programs
should be inspected,'' Saiki told a joint press conference with Hill and Kim.
Saiki was referring to various nuclear programs including a suspected
enrichment of uranium by North Korea.
Kim said the three countries ''agreed'' it is necessary to take samples from
the nuclear facilities to verify a declaration North Korea submitted to the
six-nation talks on its nuclear programs.
''Based on the agreement, we will make efforts to put it in writing during the
six-party session,'' Kim said.
Hill struck an optimistic note for progress in the next round of six-nation
sessions expected to start Monday in Beijing, saying the trilateral meeting
with Saiki and Kim ''has been very conducive in trying to reach agreement in
the six-party talks.''
The three envoys met in Tokyo to seek common ground over the issue ahead of a
one-on-one meeting between Hill, assistant secretary of state for East Asian
and Pacific affairs, and North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan, the
country's chief envoy to the six-nation talks, in Singapore planned for
Thursday.
The United States and North Korea, the key players in the six-nation talks that
also involve China and Russia, have clashed over the issue of taking samples.