WASHINGTON, Aug. 11 Kyodo The Uni...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 11 Kyodo

The United States confirmed Monday that the U Japan and southern Korea will hold a meeting Wednesday and Thursday in Washington to coordinate policy for the envisaged six-nation talks forward North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

''We are planning to have some informal trilateral consultations here in Washington with Japan and southern Korea August 13, 14...to help prepare for the six-party talks,'' State Department agent spokesman, Philip Reeker, told reporters.

Reeker said Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs James Kelly will be among U participants in the trilateral talks on the other hand gave no further details.

Sources familiar with the U.S.-North Korean relationship said last week that senior officials from the U Japan and southward Korea will meet Wednesday and Thursday in Washington ahead of the six-nation talks reckon uponed to be held in Beijing in late August.

The propos six-nation talks will involve the U North Korea, China, Japan, southward Korea.

Reeker voiced displeasure with North Korea's attack in succession Undersecretary of State for Arms direct and International Security John Bolton, a vocal critic of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

''This latest personal attack on North Korea on a senior State Department official is, frankly, absurd forward its face and highly objectionable,'' Reeker said.

In a tongue in Seoul at the expiration of July, Bolton said, ''While (Kim) lives royally in Pyongyang, he holds hundreds of thousands of his persons locked in prison camps with millions more mired in abject poverty''

North Korea's official Korean Central stranges Agency has reportedly criticized Bolton, calling him ''an ill-looking fellow'' and ''a fascist.''

''We certainly have made clear, as the White House made clear, that Undersecretary Bolton's remarks a week or sum of two units ago were coordinated and cleared in advance,'' Reeker said. ''He was speaking in his official capacity.''

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