Japan calls on North Korea to return to missile talks

Reuters | July 6 2006

Japan and South Africa on Friday urged North Korea to return to talks about its nuclear weapons and missile programmes as Tokyo slapped sanctions on the reclusive Asian state.

"We strongly call on North Korea to come back to the table, without conditions and as soon as possible," Japan's director-general for Africa Yoichi Otabe said in Pretoria where he attended a South Africa-Japan bilateral forum.

Otabe was speaking in place of Japanese vice foreign minister Yasuhisa Shiozaki, who returned home overnight after his country announced sanctions on North Korea, following Pyongyang's missile tests earlier this week.

Japan banned diplomats and charter flights from the reclusive state and also stopped for six months the entry of a ferry that provides a vital economic link for North Korea.

Otabe said the tests were a threat to the region and the international community as a whole.

"We hope to get resolution as soon as possible," he added.

South African deputy foreign minister Aziz Pahad weighed in with his support and called on North Korea not to conduct further missile tests.

Pahad is to meet his North Korean counterpart Kim Hyong Jun in Pretoria next week during a one-day visit, with talks expected to touch on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament.

The deputy minister said he would convey the message that it was not in anybody's interest to ratchet up tensions in the region and call on Pyongyang to return to six-party talks aimed at solving the impasse.

"It is not in their interest... not in the interest of the region, not in the interest of international peace and security to open up another front of tension," Pahad said.

"Therefore it is best if they resolve the issue within the framework of the six-party grouping."

He said what was needed was a normalisation of the situation in north-east Asia and steps to move North Korea out of its isolation so that the upliftment of its people and the development of the country could proceed.

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