ROK, Japan, US to Coordinate on NK Next Week
2003-08-04
Officials from South Korea, the United States and Japan will meet in Washington next week to coordinate their North Korea policy ahead of multilateral talks on the communist state's nuclear weapons program, government officials said on Sunday (Aug. 3).
The meeting, expected to be attended by assistant minister-level officials from the three countries, is expected to review a package of proposals to be presented to North Korea at the multilateral talks, a Seoul official said.
The U.S. has been conducting a review on a joint proposal made by Seoul and Tokyo since last month but the details of their proposals were not known. Therefore, the three countries are expected to finalize their package during next week's meeting.
Pyongyang last week accepted a U.S. proposal for a six-party forum involving the U.S., Russia, China, Japan and the two Koreas, dropping its demand for direct and exclusive talks with Washington.
Seoul officials expect the multilateral talks to be held in late August or early September in Beijing.
They indicated that their proposals include detailed suggestions on the timing and ways to implement a set of initiatives to lead North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program in exchange for economic and security guarantees.
The joint South Korea-Japan proposals also call for the U.S. and Japan to normalize relations with North Korea at the final stage of programs to resolve the nuclear dispute, according to ministry officials.
The meeting in Washington will be followed by further high-level policy consultations among the allies through their Trilateral Coordination and Oversight Group, a channel that coordinates policy toward Pyongyang.
South Korean officials said North Korea will be able to talk directly with the U.S. within the framework of multilateral talks.
Source : www.korea.net
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