U.S. not eyeing talks with N. Korea outside 6-party framework+

TOKYO, May 11 Kyodo -
The United States assured Japan on Monday that it has no plans to hold
bilateral talks with North Korea outside a framework of the six-nation process
on denuclearizing Pyongyang, senior Japanese officials said.
Stephen Bosworth, the U.S. special representative for North Korea policy who is
traveling around Asia for consultations on the North Korean issue, referred to
the plan during separate meetings in Tokyo with Vice Foreign Minister Mitoji
Yabunaka and Akitaka Saiki, director general of the Foreign Ministry's Asian
and Oceanian Affairs Bureau.
Yabunaka gave the nod to the plan, saying he asked Bosworth to ''coordinate
views well with related countries before holding talks'' with Pyongyang.
Saiki, Japan's chief nuclear negotiator, said Japan will not oppose U.S.-North
Korea talks if they help resume the six-party nuclear talks involving the two
Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.
The talks have stalled since December over ways to verify Pyongyang's nuclear
activities.
''If (U.S.-North Korea talks) are carried out within the six-party framework,
we are not in a position to reject the dialogue because various forms of talks
-- whether they are U.S.-North Korea, Japan-North Korea, and South-North Korea
-- have taken place so far (in the framework),'' Saiki told reporters.
Saiki and Bosworth agreed that Japan and the United States will give a ''calm
and well-controlled'' response to North Korea's recent actions, according to
Saiki.
''We recognize that it is not wise for us to be hasty and make some kinds of
concession or show a 'carrot' (to the North) in order to ensure an early
resumption of the six-party talks, at a time when North Korea shows provocative
language and action in various forms,'' Saiki said.
North Korea said April 14 that it was pulling out of the six-party talks in
response to the U.N. Security Council's censure of its April 5 rocket launch.
On April 29, Pyongyang threatened to carry out nuclear tests and test-firings
of intercontinental ballistic missiles unless the Security Council apologizes.
==Kyodo