Japanese PM urges resumption of North Korea talks

PRAGUE: Six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear programme should start again as soon as possible, Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso said on Sunday.

Visiting the Czech Republic, which holds the European Union presidency, Aso said Japan was thankful for the EU’s unified approach towards North Korea’s nuclear programme.

“We decided the six-party talks are the most practical framework for solving the questions around North Korea and that the most important thing is to open these talks again as soon as possible,” he told a news conference after meeting outgoing Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek.

North Korea said on April 14 it would quit the six-party talks which group it with South Korea, Japan, Russia, the United States and China.

A North Korean rocket launch on April 5, seen by Washington as a disguised test for a long-range missile, drew condemnation from the U.N. Security Council. The Council demanded the enforcement of sanctions that were agreed against Pyongyang after it conducted a nuclear test in 2006. Last Wednesday, North Korea threatened a new nuclear test unless the Council apologised for imposing sanctions against it.

Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported on Monday that Aso had told U.S. President Barack Obama that Tokyo would not object if Washington opted to hold bilateral talks with Pyongyang, as long as this was part of an effort to re-start the six-way negotiations.

Japan has long been wary of bilateral talks between the United States and North Korea, fearing that its own concerns about Japanese citizens abducted by Pyongyang’s agents decades ago might be ignored.

Monday, REUTERS