South Korean, Japanese and US envoys will meet this weekend in Seoul to try and coax North Korea back to talks on its nuclear programmes, South Korea's foreign minister has announced.
The meeting comes after North Korean leader Kim Jong-il told a visiting Chinese envoy Pyonyang would return to six-party nuclear talks if conditions were right and Washington showed sincerity, the North's official media reported yesterday.
That was the first statement by the reclusive Kim since North Korea explicitly declared on February 10 that it had atomic weapons and was also pulling out of the talks with South Korea, China, Russia, the United States and Japan.
"The government agreed to hold a three-way meeting between South Korea, the United States and China in Seoul on February 26 to discuss the result of the visit by China's Wang Jarui to the North and the early resumption of the six-party talks," South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon told reporters.
China sent Wang, head of the Communist Party's liaison department, to Pyongyang on Saturday to try to revive the talks and he returned home on Tuesday.
The six-party talks ground to a halt last year after three inconclusive rounds since August, 2003.
The meeting of the three allies in Seoul brings together their lead negotiators in the nuclear talks -- South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-soon, U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Christopher Hill and Japanese Foreign Ministry Director General Kenichiro Sasae, Ban said.
Analysts and officials said Kim's statement may be a sign the North is backing down from its high-stakes brinkmanship in the face of unified international pressure, including a push by its main benefactor, China, to restart the stalled talks.
Ban urged the North to withdraw its conditions for returning to the talks and raise its demands at the negotiating table.
"There should be no conditions for returning to the talks because we are already in the process of negotiations," he said.
"If North Korea has disagreements, (the countries) can discuss them and reach agreements in the process of negotiations," he said.
Kim Jong-il told Wang his country would return to the table "anytime if there are mature conditions for the six-party talks", the North's KCNA news agency said on Tuesday.
Ban declined to comment on the specific demands of the North.