U.S. welcomes reduced regional tension, but N. Korea sanctions continue+

TOKYO, Aug. 26 Kyodo - A visiting U.S. official in charge of sanctions on North Korea said Wednesday he welcomes the easing of regional tension but that it is important to implement a U.N. Security Council resolution aimed at punishing North Korea.

Philip Goldberg, who is on the final leg of his Asian tour which also took him
to Singapore, Thailand and South Korea, also said at a press conference in
Tokyo that the United States is having ''very good cooperation'' over the issue
with China, a traditional ally of North Korea and the chair of the six-party
talks aimed at denuclearizing Pyongyang.
Goldberg's visit to Japan comes at a time when North Korea appears eager for
dialogue in a shift from acts described by many countries as provocative, as
indicated by the release of two detained U.S. journalists following a visit to
Pyongyang by former U.S. President Bill Clinton.
While noting that Clinton's visit was a ''successful humanitarian mission,''
Goldberg said, ''The resolutions are the resolutions. The resolutions talk
about measures to bring about denuclearization, to bring about an end to the
ballistic missile program...so the resolutions and the effects of these
measures will continue until we are at that point.''
''We support a reduction in tensions, we want to explore every possibility of
returning to a process that will lead to those goals, but we are not just going
back to talks, that's not what the stated goal is. The talks are for a
particular purpose and that's what we are all after,'' he said.
On the effects of the U.N. resolution on North Korea, Goldberg said there is
''some indication that the overall effort is working,'' but he did not
elaborate.
He also said the six-party talks, involving the two Koreas, China, Japan,
Russia and the United States, will take on the central role in dealing with the
North Korean nuclear problem and that bilateral contact should be part of the
multilateral framework.
On Tuesday, Goldberg met with Akitaka Saiki, director general of the Japanese
Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, and other Japanese
officials to discuss implementation of the U.N. resolution. Saiki is also
Japan's chief negotiator at the stalled six-party talks.
In April, North Korea said it will pull out of the six-party talks in protest
at a U.N. Security Council statement denouncing a rocket launch by Pyongyang
that was widely seen as a disguised missile test.
North Korea then detonated a nuclear device in May for the second time, which
in turn led to the passage of the U.N. Security Council resolution tightening
sanctions on North Korea.
Meanwhile, new U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos told reporters after a
meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone in Tokyo that the two
had ''committed to work closely together on all the issues that Japan and the
United States work hand in hand on.''
==Kyodo