Chinese envoy discusses North Korea in Japan
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-08-24 14:21

Six-party talks aimed at dismantling North Korea's nuclear weapons programme will likely resume next week as planned, China's top envoy to the discussions said on Wednesday, reported Reuters.

But Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, visiting Japan for talks with Japanese officials, also told reporters the exact starting date would be decided after consultations with the other parties.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei (C) talks to Japan's Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Tsuneo Nishida at the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo August 24, 2005. Wu, head of China's negotiating team, said six-party talks aimed at dismantling North Korea's nuclear weapons programme will likely resume next week as planned. Man on the left is unidentified. [Reuters]

"As planned," Wu said when asked about the timing of the upcoming talks, following a meeting with Kenichiro Sasae, Japan's chief negotiator to the forum which includes North Korea, South Korea, the United States, Japan, China and Russia.

Following a gap of more than a year, the six countries met in Beijing for nearly two weeks before talks broke down earlier this month, ending only with a decision to reconvene during the week of August 29.

There has been a flurry of diplomatic activity in the interim including contact between U.S. and North Korean officials.

Lee Jong-seok (L), deputy head of South Korea's National Security Council, shakes hands with Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Shotaro Yachi during a meeting, on policy coordination on the North Korean nuclear issue, at Tokyo's Iikura Guest House August 24, 2005. [Reuters]

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon discussed the six-party talks during a meeting on Tuesday evening in Washington.

Lee Jong-Seok, the deputy head of South Korea's National Security Council, is also in Tokyo and due to hold talks with Sasae later on Wednesday.

Sasae is set to fly to Washington on Thursday for a meeting with the top U.S. negotiator to the nuclear talks, Christopher Hill, Japanese officials said.

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