Senior diplomats from the United States, South Korea and Japan opened talks in Washington today to try and forge a unified approach to the North Korean nuclear crisis.
Senior State Department Asia policymaker Mr James Kelly hosted the two US allies, meeting under a joint framework on North Korea policy known as the Trilateral Co-ordination and Oversight Group (TCOG).
South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Mr Lee Tae-shik and Japanese Foreign Ministry official Mr Mitoji Yabunaka also attended, after the three sides held informal bilateral discussions yesterday.
The US State Department talks opened hours after Pyongyang warned it would consider any imposition of sanctions as a declaration of war.
But the United States has insisted it will not bow to what it sees as nuclear blackmail and refuses to negotiate with the North until it renounces nuclear weapons development.
President George W. Bush has repeated, however, the United States had no intention of invading North Korea, which he last year included in an "axis of evil" along with Iran and Iraq.
The United States signalled yesterday it did not have a major problem with a compromise strategy proposed by Seoul to resolve the crisis.
The plan is understood to fall short of a non-aggression pact that North Korea has demanded and Washington has rejected but could involve a written assurance the United States would not attack its Cold War foe.
Under the proposal, the United States would reportedly resume fuel shipments to Pyongyang after North Korea verifiably halted work on nuclear programmes based on uranium and plutonium.
AFP