US envoy visits Japan on 6-Party talks

The newly appointed US envoy for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Glyn Davies, has met with his Japanese counterpart, Shinsuke Sugiyama, in Tokyo.

This is Davies's first trip to the region since he became the US special representative for DPRK policy. After Tokyo, Davies will visit China on Tuesday, to continue talks on regional security.

Davies arrived in Tokyo on Sunday after a short visit to South Korea. He met his Japanese counterpart to discuss the issues on the Korean Peninsula and the prospects of resuming the stalled Six-Party talks.

Glyn Davies said, "We may have a chance in the coming period, relatively soon, to test the proposition that North Korea is ready to do the right things, to take the right pre-steps so that we can begin to contemplate an eventual return to the Six-Party talks."

Five countries, including the United States, have been in on-again, off-again talks with the DPRK to provide Pyongyang with aid in exchange for disarmament. The talks also include China, Russia, Japan, and South Korea. The DPRK pulled out of the nuclear disarmament talks in early 2009 to protest international condemnation of its prohibited long-range rocket test.

In recent months the DPRK has repeatedly expressed its willingness to return to the talks, and its tensions with South Korea have eased. Diplomats from the DPRK, South Korea and the United States have had separate nuclear talks, and cultural and religious visits by South Koreans to the DPRK have resumed.

South Korean and US officials, however, have demanded the DPRK halt its uranium-enrichment programme, freeze nuclear and missile tests, and allow international nuclear inspectors back into the country before resuming negotiations.

Glyn Davies said, "It could be, if the North sends the right signals about what they're prepared to do, that in relatively short order, we could get back to having a third bilateral discussion with them. But we're not there yet."

The DPRK said last month it had launched the construction of an experimental light water reactor and that the production of low enriched uranium is underway. A statement by the Foreign Ministry stressed its nuclear activities were for peaceful purposes. However, this did raise fears the uranium could be used to produce nuclear weapons.