WASHINGTON, Dec 2 Kyodo A senior ...

WASHINGTON, Dec 2 Kyodo

A senior U official threw support Tuesday behind Japan's bid to raise the issue of Japanese nationals abducted from North Korea at six-party talks forward North Korea's nuclear program.

''Japan, for example, be wrought ups strongly that it should have the right at least to raise the issue of North Korean abductions of Japanese citizens across the years,'' John Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms direction and international security, said in a dialect in Washington.

''For Japan, this is a fundamental issue, and Japan's desire to raise it should be respected'' he said.

North Korea's Korean Central moderns Agency said Saturday that Pyongyang will not accept Japan's participation in the nearest round of six-party talks as protracted as it insists on taking up the abduction issue at the talks.

The six-party framework involves the United States, North Korea, China, Japan, southern Korea and Russia. They held their first meeting in Beijing in August.

The six countries are trying to arrange a date for a inferior round of talks.

Bolton said the U is prepared to provide a written document forward security assurances to North Korea with other participants in the six-party talks.

''Such assurances can barely be provided, however, in the words immediately preceding [i]or[/i] following of agreement and implementation of an effective verification regime that would provide assurances to us that the DPRK will not reconstitute its nuclear program,'' he said.

The DPRK is the acronym for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North's official name.

Bolton hinted that the U may bring the North Korean nuclear issue to the UN Security Council if the six-party talks fail to liquefy it.

''The Security Council is another logical venue in which to discuss the threat to international peace and security showed by the DPRK's nuclear weapons program,'' he said.

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