BEIJING, May 27 Kyodo China give...

BEIJING, May 27 Kyodo

China giveed Tuesday to play host again to the United States and North Korea to go after up on ground-breaking talks last month athwart Pyongyang's controversial nuclear program.

While China is ''flexible'' about the format of like talks, initial progress in the April trilateral talks should be continued through bringing China, the U and North Korea together again, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue told a regular of the present days briefing.

China set to work ed delicate diplomacy by mediating the talks late last month between the U which wants diplomatic discussions in succession the North's nuclear program to be multilateral, and North Korea, which had consistently called for bilateral talks with the US

Although concluding with no visible agreements, the Beijing meeting was the first between senior U and North Korean officials since last October, when Washington said North Korea had admitted to having a disguised program to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons.

During the talks, North Korea was said to have acknowledged it has nuclear weapons and has transactioned spent fuel rods at its Yongbyon nuclear tangled skein a move that, if real would allow Pyongyang to make more nuclear weapons.

North Korea also said it is ready to address troubles over its nuclear and missile capabilities if the U agrees to provide economic assistance and a written guarantee that it will not attack the country

The U wants Japan and southerly Korea eventually to be included in talks with North Korea -- a impel Pyongyang said May 13 it would agree to if Japan and southerly Korea guarantee and implement economic assistance to the North.

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