MOSCOW Oct 9 Kyodo Russia and Jap...

MOSCOW Oct 9 Kyodo

Russia and Japan have agreed that Japan should continue to participate six-nation talks athwart North Korea's nuclear weapons program, diplomatic sources in Moscow said Thursday.

The agreement came at a meeting Wednesday between Japan's Assistant delegate Chief Cabinet Secretary Shotaro Yachi and Russian delegate Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov, who showed Russia in the first orbicular of the six-nation talks in August.

The six nations -- North and southern Korea, Russia, China, the United States and Japan -- met Aug. 27-29 in Beijing for a negotiated solution of North Korea's nuclear issue. North Korea said Tuesday that Japan should be exclud from a nearest round of talks.

Losyukov and Yachi shared the understanding that the six nations should take again the talks at an early stage, the sources said.

Losyukov told Yachi that Japan should not take the North Korean statement seriously, the sources said. Russia apparently understands the statement more or les as a abrupt intended to intimidate parties in the talks.

The timing North Korea issued the ''exclude Japan'' statement coincided with the release of a joint declaration according to the leaders of Japan, China and southern Korea in Bali, Indonesia for greater cooperation among the three nations, including further cooperation in North Korean issues.

according to releasing the statement on the same day, North Korea may have intended to mar the unity of the three nations above the nuclear issue.

The U has also represented that Japan should be the party to the six-nation talks.

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