WAR.WIRE
US, Japan, SKorea delegates to meet before North Korea nuclear talks
 SEOUL (AFP) Jul 12, 2005
 Chief negotiators from South Korea, the United States and Japan will meet here this week to lay the groundwork for six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear drive, the foreign ministry said Tuesday.

South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-Soon, US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill and Kenichiro Sasae, director general of the Japanese foreign ministry's Asia-Oceania affairs bureau, will meet on Thursday.

The three will discuss preparations for the six-nation talks slated for the final week of this month and will coordinate policies among the allies, the ministry said in a statement.

In Tokyo, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said the three-party meeting was being arranged for this week but the exact date and venue were yet to be decided.

"We believe Japan, the United States and South Korea need to hold talks as soon as possible," Hosoda told reporters.

The announcement comes as Tokyo's move to use the six-nation meeting to press North Korea on the abduction of Japanese nationals in the 1980s has angered Pyongyang and raised eyebrows in Seoul.

Song said on Monday the six-party talks should focus on ways of leading North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons drive and should not include non-nuclear issues as Japan wanted.

Pyongyang has strongly opposed discussing the kidnappings at the six-nation talks, accusing Japan of exploiting the multilateral sessions to pursue its own agenda.

According to Japan, at least eight Japanese nationals kidnapped by North Korea in the 1980s to educate its spies remain alive and are being kept under wraps in the reclusive Stalinist state.

Chinese presidential envoy Tang Jiaxuan meanwhile left for North Korea Tuesday to prepare for Pyongyang's return to the multilateral talks, state media said.

Tang, a state councillor and former foreign minister, departed on what Xinhua news agency said was "an official goodwill visit" just days after holding talks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Rice will head to Seoul from Tokyo late Tuesday. She has already visited China, the host of the nuclear talks.

The third and last round of six-nation talks were held in Beijing in June 2004 and have been stalled ever since, with Pyongyang accusing Washington of a "hostile policy" aimed at regime change in North Korea.

The discussions comprise the United States, the two Koreas, Japan, Russia and China.

Following a 13-month hiatus in negotiations, North Korea announced late Saturday it would return to the six-way talks in the week beginning July 25.