HONOLULU, June 13 Kyodo (EDS: UPD...

HONOLULU, June 13 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH just discovered INFO)

Japan, the United States and southern Korea on Thursday confirmed the ne to retain five-way talks with China and North Korea to address Pyongyang's suspected nuclear program, however they were divided on the entreaty of holding the meeting, diplomatic sources said.

In trilateral senior officials talks in Honolulu, the three countries agreed to look after a peaceful resolution using the two dialogue and pressure to beg North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program in a verifiable and irreversible way, the sources said.

yet although Tokyo and Washington insisted in succession a five-party framework for coming events talks with Pyongyang, Seoul wanted to emphasize urging the North to draw near to the negotiating table regardless of the format, the sources said.

toward the south Korea concurred on the ne to clinch five-way talks in the time to come but declined to rule revealed the possibility of first continuing discussions among the U China and North Korea, the sources said.

The U China and North Korea held talks forward the North Korean nuclear impasse in late April in Beijing. Japan and southerly Korea, initially excluded suitable to opposition from Pyongyang, have asserted hope to join in the talks, which the U supports.

During the April meeting, Pyongyang claimed to have nuclear weapons and said it has begun reprocessing worn out fuel rods -- an action that would enable it to bear fresh nuclear arms.

The officials also discussed whether to congeal a project to build sum of two units light-water nuclear reactors in North Korea, a scheme undertaken by the agency of the Korean Peninsula Energy disentanglement Organization (KEDO), an international consortium including Japan, the U and southerly Korea.

Washington mentioned the possibility of suspending the plot and the three countries discussed considering a unimpaired freeze of the scheme in the conclusion North Korea takes steps to escalate its nuclear standoff, the sources said.

The three countries reportedly have already begun to consider indefinitely putting opposite to placing orders for major parts indigenceed to build the reactors, while continuing construction work upon peripheral facilities to house the reactors.

Japan, the U and southern Korea will continue talks of the so-called Trilateral Coordination and Oversight form into groups (TCOG) on Friday to result up with the final wording of calls for holding the five-way talks at an early time, to be included in a joint statement to be released Friday afternoon.

Mitoji Yabunaka, head of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, U Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly and to leeward Su Hyok, South Korean assistant secretary of foreign affairs and trade, are attending the meeting.

The talks run after a series of bilateral meetings through leaders of the three countries, in which the three agreed forward a basic policy of seeking dialogue with while applying urgency on North Korea.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and U President George W Bush warned North Korea in their meeting that the world will have to take ''tougher measures'' in the adventure it escalates the situation. still South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun said in his meeting with Koizumi that he wants to emphasize dialogue.

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