Japan, China agree to cooperate for progress in 6-way nuclear talks+

TOKYO, July 9 Kyodo - Chief nuclear negotiators from China and Japan on Thursday affirmed the need to cooperate to break the impasse in negotiations on denuclearizing North Korea, but stopped short of agreeing on whether to convene so-called five-party talks without the North, Japanese envoy Akitaka Saiki said after the talks.

Saiki and Wu Dawei, China's vice foreign minister and chairman of the six-party
talks aimed at denuclearizing North Korea, also agreed that the two countries
are ''fully committed'' to the implementation of a U.N. Security Council
resolution designed to punish the North following its second nuclear test in
May, Saiki said.
Wu's visit to Japan is part of a four-country trip which has already taken him
to Russia and the United States. He is expected to head to South Korea after
leaving Japan on Sunday. It also comes after North Korea launched seven
missiles toward the Sea of Japan.
''We agreed that provocative acts by North Korea, such as its recent nuclear
test and missile launches, are unacceptable,'' Saiki, director general of the
Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, told reporters
after the talks in Tokyo.
Noting that the two exchanged views on how to get the stalled six-party talks
back on track, including on what they call ''a new approach,'' Saiki told
reporters, ''We will continue to consider and cooperate.''
The six-party talks, involving the two Koreas, China, Japan, the United States
and Russia, have been stalled since December over ways to verify Pyongyang's
nuclear activities.
In relation to the idea of holding discussions between the five parties, Saiki
told Wu that ''the process of tuning in opinions is extremely important,''
while Wu said that he will ''take the matter back (to his country) and consider
it,'' according to Saiki.
Wu, for his part, told reporters he is hoping for the early resumption of the
six-party talks through the cooperation of the countries concerned.
Prior to his meeting with Saiki, Wu paid a courtesy call on Japanese Vice
Foreign Minister Mitoji Yabunaka.
Wu is visiting Japan from Thursday to Sunday. He will meet with Japanese
Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone on Friday, according to the Japanese Foreign
Ministry.
North Korea has said it would quit the talks in protest at a U.N. Security
Council statement condemning its rocket launch in April, which was widely seen
as a disguised missile test.
The North, which also conducted its second nuclear test in May, said it will
begin uranium enrichment and launched seven ballistic missiles on Saturday.
==Kyodo