Aso, Rice, Ban turn tables on six-way talks

Japan, the U.S. and South Korea agreed at their foreign ministerial talks earlier this month to refuse to allow North Korea to return to the stalled six-party nuclear talks as a "nuclear nation," according to Japanese government sources.

In the Oct. 20 trilateral meeting, Foreign Minister Taro Aso proposed that the three countries require Pyongyang to take specific actions to scrap its nuclear weapons as a precondition for returning to the negotiating table, and his U.S. and South Korean counterparts basically agreed, the sources said.

The proposal was aimed at restarting the multilateral talks also involving China and Russia from the viewpoint of their joint statement in September 2005, in which North Korea pledged to scrap all its nuclear weapons, they said.

In the meeting in Seoul with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki Moon, Aso was quoted as saying North Korea's "return to the six-party talks as a nuclear nation is impermissible."

The three countries had urged North Korea to return to the talks unconditionally, but the accord means they changed the stance to impose their own conditions over a resumption of the negotiations.

North Korea has been boycotting the six-party talks, which are aimed at eliminating its atomic threat, citing the financial sanctions the U.N. has imposed on a Macau-based bank for allegedly distributing counterfeit dollars and laundering money for North Korea.

Pyongyang is unlikely to accept the three countries' demand for early steps to scrap its nuclear weapons, as its No. 2 official in command, Kim Yong Nam, praised the North's Oct. 9 nuclear test as a "historic event."

Japan's proposal apparently reflects the stance that it would not be satisfied with North Korea merely returning to the negotiating table unless it gives up its nuclear ambitions.

South Korea accepted the stern Japanese proposal rather reluctantly, because it believes North Korea will not return to the talks with this condition, but apparently finds it difficult to take a different position from the U.S. and Japan, a Japan-South Korea relations source said.

South Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Ban Ki Moon will come to Tokyo on Sunday for two days of discussions on the North Korean nuclear issue, Japanese officials said Monday.

The government is arranging for Ban to hold talks with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Foreign Minister Taro Aso, as well as senior officials of the Liberal Democratic Party and coalition partner New Komeito, the officials said.

The talks are expected to affirm cooperation in implementing a U.N. Security Council resolution against North Korea and to agree to continue urging Pyongyang to abolish its nuclear program and to return to the six-party talks immediately and unconditionally, the sources said.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki on Monday reaffirmed Japan's commitment to its nonnuclear policy, after a leading Diet member said debate on rethinking the policy is "only natural" following North Korea's recent atomic test.

"The Japanese government will protect the three nonnuclear principles. The government will not officially discuss the matter. There will be no official discussions within the Liberal Democratic Party," Shiozaki said Monday.

Shoichi Nakagawa, the LDP's policy chief who triggered concerns when he raised the issue on a talk show a week after the test, said at a news conference Friday in Washington that Japan must "look at all means" to discourage neighboring countries from developing nuclear weapons.

Nakagawa said it was "only natural" that such debate take place in light of North Korea's nuclear threat. He added, though, that "just because we are discussing it doesn't mean there is going to be nuclear armament in Japan."