Five countries plan North Korea talks in Beijing

October 19, 2006, 06:30
Foreign ministers from five countries, including the United States, Japan and South Korea, will meet in Beijing tomorrow to discuss North Korea's nuclear ambitions, a Japanese daily reported today.
Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, who arrived in Tokyo yesterday, is to hold talks with Shinzo Abe, the prime minister, this morning before leaving for Seoul and then travelling on to Beijing. She is seeking a unified stance on UN sanctions slapped on Pyongyang on Saturday for exploding a nuclear device.
A US official accompanying Rice said five-party talks in Beijing had been provisionally set for tomorrow but were later cancelled because of "scheduling problems."
Christopher Hill, the assistant US secretary of state, who is also in Tokyo, told Japanese reporters when asked about the reported Beijing talks that no such meeting was expected to take place, according to a US embassy official in Tokyo.
Moon will not attendBan Ki-moon, the South Korean foreign minister, has no plans to go to Beijing for such a meeting at this point, a diplomatic source in Seoul said. Quoting unspecified diplomatic sources, the Sankei newspaper said foreign ministers from the United States, Japan, South Korea, Russia and China would gather in Beijing tomorrow.
The five nations had been engaged in talks with North Korea to persuade it to abandon its nuclear programme. The talks have been stalled for a year after North Korea refused to participate, citing financial restrictions imposed on it by Washington.
Tang Jiaxuan, the Chinese state councillor, was visiting Pyongyang to try to persuade North Korea to take part in the Beijing talks, the paper said.
Japanese government officials were not immediately available for comment - Reuters.