Foreign ministers of South Korea, the United States and Japan on
Thursday urged an early return of North Korea to the six-party
talks.
South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon and his US counterpart
Condoleezza Rice and Japanese counterpart Taro Aso held a two-hour
trilateral meeting in his residence, discussing the nuclear issue
on the Korean peninsula, said South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
The three sides reiterated that the nuclear test by North Korea is
a grave threat to the Korean Peninsula, the East Asia as well as
the world. The three sides confirmed that they will take unified
measures against K in terms of the UN Security Council's Resolution
1718, the Yonhap said, quoting an unnamed South Korean Foreign
Ministry official.
The three sides agreed to leave the door open for negotiations
with North Korea in a bid to resolve the nuclear issue through a
peaceful and diplomatic way.
During the meeting, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
assured South Korea and Japan of the US security commitments in the
region, the Yonhap said.
It was the first trilateral meeting among the three countries'
foreign ministers since October, 2000, when then US Secretary of
State Madeleine Albright met with her counterparts in Seoul after
her visit to Pyongyang.
Rice arrived in Seoul on Thursday on her three-nation Asia tour.
She is scheduled to travel to Beijing on Friday.
Aso arrived here Thursday afternoon for the trilateral
meeting.
(Xinhua News Agency October 20, 2006)
