China, Japan: N.Korea talks set for next week
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-08-26 21:02

China and Japan said on Friday six-party talks aimed at dismantling North Korea's nuclear weapons programme are still on for next week, but no date has been fixed.

The status of the talks, which also include the two Koreas, Russia and the United States, had been up in the air with silence from all sides on a firm date to resume after the participants agreed to a three-week recess in the last round.

Asked by reporters whether the talks were still on track, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said: "Of course we have agreed to that. We will resume the second phase of the fourth round of six-party talks from the week starting August 29."

Asked if an exact date had been fixed, he said: "We are working on that."

North Korea has been playing the nuclear card to win diplomatic and economic benefits since a standoff began in October 2002 after Washington said Pyongyang had admitted to a secret programme to enrich uranium, violating a 1994 accord.

Pyongyang has since denied having such a programme beyond its known plutonium plant.

Later on Friday, Japanese diplomatic sources in Beijing were quoted by Kyodo news agency as saying Wu Dawei, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister and China's top envoy to the talks, could visit Pyongyang as early as Saturday.

After a gap of more than a year, the six sides met in Beijing for nearly two weeks before breaking off earlier this month with an agreement to reconvene during the week of August 29.

Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said on Friday the plans had not changed.

"We are making preparations towards starting some time next week," he told reporters.

While the participants have been working actively to restart the negotiations, North Korea has not toned down its criticism of the United States.

On Wednesday, Pyongyang criticised joint military drills by U.S. and South Korean forces, where the two are testing their computer and command systems, as coercion.

In a sign that Washington may be softening its stance, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the top U.S. negotiator, said on Tuesday the issue of the North having a civilian nuclear plan would not break a deal.

"I think we can come up with something," Hill told reporters.

North Korea's insistence on the right to develop peaceful nuclear energy was the key sticking point in the last round of talks where the parties failed to agree to a joint statement.

U.S. officials have been sceptical about allowing North Korea to pursue a nuclear programme for energy production out of concern that it might be used for military purposes.

Described by U.S. President George W. Bush as part of an "axis of evil" along with Iran and pre-war Iraq, North Korea said for the first time this year it had nuclear weapons, arguing it needed them to deter a hostile United States.

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