**The leaders of Japan and South Korea have said North Korea should not be offered aid until it has begun to dismantle its nuclear arms programme.**Speaking in Seoul, Japan’s PM Yukio Hatoyama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak urged the North to return to stalled international nuclear talks.
The two men later go to Beijing for a summit with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.
North Korea said this week it was open to multilateral talks if it could have meetings directly with the US.
President Lee and Prime Minister Hatoyama said international sanctions against North Korea should remain in place until “specific action” had been taken over its nuclear programme.
“We agreed on the need for a fundamental and comprehensive solution to the North Korean nuclear issue that will not lead to the negotiation tactics of the past,” Mr Lee said at a joint news conference after their meeting.
“We agreed to work closely together on a way to resolve the issue in a single step.”
Denuclearisation sought
The six-party talks, which began in 2003, include delegates from the two Koreas, China, the US, Russia and Japan.
The forum has reached deals in the past for North Korea to take steps to disable its nuclear facilities, only to backtrack after receiving aid and security guarantees.
NUCLEAR CRISIS
- Oct 2006 - North Korea conducts an underground nuclear test
- Feb 2007 - North Korea agrees to close its main nuclear reactor in exchange for fuel aid
- June 2007 - North Korea shuts its main Yongbyon reactor
- June 2008 - North Korea makes its long-awaited declaration of nuclear assets
- Oct 2008 - The US removes North Korea from its list of countries which sponsor terrorism
- Dec 2008 - Pyongyang slows work to dismantle its nuclear programme, after a US decision to suspend energy aid
- April 2009 - Pyongyang launches a rocket carrying what it says is a communications satellite
- 25 May 2009 - North Korea conducts a second nuclear test
- 5 August 2009 - Former US President Bill Clinton visits to help secure the release of two detained US journalists
- 6 October 2009 - North Korea tells China it may be willing to return to six-party talks
Scepticism over N Korea’s offer
Q&A: North Korea nuclear talks
The North pulled out of the talks in April this year and tensions in the region rose after it launched a series of missiles and conducted an underground nuclear test - drawing UN sanctions in response.
In September, Pyongyang said it was close to the final stages of uranium enrichment and was continuing to weaponise its plutonium stocks.
South Korean officials have said recently that the North appeared to be in the final stages of restoring the nuclear programme at Yongbyon that it had shut down before abandoning the six-party process.
In recent weeks, though, the North has shown signs of a more conciliatory approach, and on Monday Mr Kim told the visiting Chinese premier that Pyongyang was “willing to attend multilateral talks, including the six-party talks, depending on the progress in its talks with the United States”.
The US has said it is willing to engage directly with North Korea, but only as part of a return to the six-party forum.
Washington has said it is seeking the North’s complete denuclearisation.
Later on Friday, the Japanese and South Korean leaders fly to Beijing for a summit on Saturday with Premier Wen.
China is North Korea’s biggest trading partner and the country which holds the greatest sway over the secretive Pyongyang regime.