Japan, the United States and South Korea will move to work out an international inspection system on dismantling of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s nuclear program.
Senior officials from the three counties are to hold a consultation Monday and Tuesday in Tokyo to map out details, Kyodo News quoted Japanese Foreign Ministry sources as saying.
Mitoji Yabunaka, director general of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau of the Japanese Foreign Ministry, US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs James Kelly, and South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuck will participate in the meeting, Kyodo said.
All the three attended the August six-party talks in Beijing on the nuclear standoff. The other three participants were China, Russia and the DPRK.
Apart from experts of the three countries, the envisioned plan would also involve other nations as well as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), according to Kyodo.
The three officials are also expected to discuss how they would respond to the DPRK's security concerns and promote energy aid for it, Kyodo said.
The DPRK has asked the United States to sign a nonaggression treaty. The United States refused to do so, but said it could offer instead a written security guarantee.
The DPRK and the United States signed the Agreement Framework in October, 1994. The DPRK agreed to dismantle nuclear facilities in exchange for aids of two lighter-water reactors and heavy fuel oil.
But the United States announced last October that the DPRK had admitted to having a covert program to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons and stopped the oil supply.
The DPRK expelled IAEA inspectors and announced restart of the halted nuclear power facility last December.
(Xinhua News Agency September 26, 2003)
