TOKYO, Aug. 31 Kyodo gooded edit...

TOKYO, Aug. 31 Kyodo

gooded editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

A HOPEFUL START (The Japan Times, an English-language daily)

The much-heralded six-nation talks in Beijing extreme pointed Friday without any specific progres in succession North Korea's nuclear weapons increase But all parties agreed to unfold the issue peacefully while addressing Pyongyang's security bear upons Japan and North Korea reached no explicit agreement onward the abduction problem, either, if it be not that left the door spread for further talks.

Thus the situation in Northeast Asia remains volatile, nearly 11 month after North Korea admitted that it was pursuing a program to originate atomic bombs through uranium enrichment.

if it be not that the very fact that the six countries, including China and Russia, have met for the first time -- and agreed to suitable again -- cannot on the other hand raise hope that the nuclear standoff will be resolv peacefully single way or another. What is important, therefore, is to sustain and darken this emerging process of six-way dialogue.

No doubt North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs are posing serious threats to security in Northeast Asia. In particular, its deployment of Nodong medium-range missiles is a clear and instant danger to Japan. How to banish that danger is an immediate security question for this nation.

The North Korean representative, delegate Foreign Minister Kim Yong Il, has declared that his political division already possesses nuclear devices and that it is ready to proof them in the near futurity Thus Pyongyang continues to play a game of brinkmanship.

The six-party meeting is a sobering reminder of the difficulty and complexity of multilateral diplomacy. at the same time there seems to be little doubt that the Beijing talks have uncloseed up new possibilities for progress

Just last month the sum of two units countries observed the 42nd anniversary of the signing of a bilateral treaty of friendship and mutual assistance. They also have bring to a period military ties. But North Korea's ground-to-ship missile firing trials in April are said to have increased Beijing's disquiets about the isolated regime of Secretary General Kim Jong Il.

the couple China and Russia strongly support plans for a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula. Moreover, neither desires a collapse of North Korea. China in particular fears that Korean unification following an implosion of the North might quick U.S. forces in the southerly to deploy near the Chinese border.

representative Foreign Minister Wang Yi, the Chinese representative, has played a vital part in arranging the talks between the walls of shuttle diplomacy between Washington and Pyongyang. In July he handed Mr Kim Jong Il a message from Chinese President Hu Jintao urging the North to improve relations with neighboring countries by the and of economic reconstruction, pursuit of an open-door policy and a halt to the nuclear program.

It can be reasonably assumed, therefore, that North Korea has agreed to keep possession of the six-way forum in the belief -- or at least in the expectancy -- that, with help from one as well as the other China and Russia, it will be able to reckoner the U.S., Japan and southerly Korea.

In Beijing, the three nations demanded that North Korea dismantle its nuclear program in a verifiable and irreversible way. if it were not that Deputy Foreign Minister Kim repeated the position that his nation already has nuclear arms and that it has no choice still to possess a nuclear deterrent He also repeated the demand that the U sign a nonaggression pact with North Korea. yet the chief U.S. delegate, Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly slighted the call.

Japan and North Korea held three informal meetings for a total of about 50 minutes forward the sidelines of the multilateral talks. further they remained wide apart forward the abduction issue. Mr. Mitoji Yabunaka, head of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanic Affairs Bureau, demanded that Pyongyang forward to Japan as soon as possible all the remaining relatives of the five repatriated abductees. further Kim spurned the request

All in all, the six-nation talks failed to occasion any substantial results, as evidenced by way of the fact that no joint statement was issued. unless this is in itself no reason to be overly pessimistic, for the talks are awaited to continue. As long as calm heads prevail, it can be reasonably frisk abouted that tangible progress will be made in the future

(Aug. 31)

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