Tokyo, Seoul, Washington discuss North Korean n–programme

Tokyo, January 28: Representatives from Japan, South Korea and the US met on Wednesday in Tokyo to alyse North Korea’s nuclear programme and study the possibility of resuming six–party talks aimed at denuclearisation of the regime. The trilateral meeting comes at a time when tensions between the US and North Korea have heightened, with new sanctions imposed by Washington on Pyongyang after the FBI accused the latter of masterminding the hacking of Sony Pictures. Japanese foreign ministry’s Asia Pacific Director Junichi Ihara, South Korean special representative Hwang Joon Kook and US special envoy Sung Kim took part in the meeting. The trio are expected to alyse the proposal made by Pyongyang on January 10, in which North Korea offered to cancel its plans for a new nuclear test if South Korea and the US agreed not to conduct joint military exercises in the Korean peninsula. They are also believed to be seeking ways to resume six–party talks — between the two Koreas, US, Japan, Chi and Russia — that have remained stalled since 2008. Pyongyang has repeatedly urged the resumption of the talks without preconditions, but the three allies have refused to do so until North Korea took “concrete steps” towards denuclearisation. During the meeting, Tokyo is also expected to seek ways to press the Kim Jong–un regime to provide information on Japanese citizens, kidpped by Pyongyang decades ago to use them for espioge purposes. (IANS)