Korean Nukes: Delicate Diplomacy

How to restart six-nation talks on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons program was the focus of discussions Monday among diplomats from China, Japan and South Korea, after the communist North said it was willing to join negotiations.

Fu Ying, head of the Chinese Foreign Ministry's Asian affairs bureau, and his Japanese counterpart Mitoji Yabunaka met with Foreign Minister Yoon Young-kwan and other South Korean officials in a second day of consultations in Seoul.

On Saturday, North Korea said it was willing to hold talks with the United States and five other nations early next year on ending its nuclear weapons program.

The United States, China, Japan, Russia and the two Koreas held a first round of talks on North Korea's nuclear development in Beijing in August. The meetings ended without much progress or an agreement on a date for new talks.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Pyongyang last week. During Wang's visit, North Korea agreed to join a new round of six-nation talks, but warned that future talks would rupture if Washington did not change its policy.

North Korea says it will dismantle its nuclear program in exchange for a U.S. security guarantee and aid. But before making any concessions, Washington wants North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions.

The nuclear crisis began in October last year when U.S. officials said the North admitted running a secret nuclear weapons program in violation of a 1994 accord. Washington and its allies cut off free oil shipments.

North Korea then expelled U.N. nuclear monitors, quit the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and declared that it was restarting its nuclear facilities frozen under the 1994 deal.