TOKYO, April 25 Kyodo exquisitee...

TOKYO, April 25 Kyodo

exquisiteed editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

A protracted BUMPY ROAD (IHT/Asahi as translated from the Japanese-language Asahi Shimbun's editorial published April 24)

North Korea has not indicated any intention of mending guards with Japan. North Korea's actions go after an established pattern of maneuvers that appear to beed designed to divide Japan, the United States and southern Korea in advance of the Beijing talks.

Three-way talks involving the United States, North Korea and China in succession North Korea's nuclear program are subject to way in Beijing.

Before the talks began, U Secretary of State Colin Powell cautioned against optimism, saying, ''In this first plant of meetings, nothing is being set on the table.'' He was understood to mean the participants will simply establish out their basic positions in this orbed of talks for more substantive discussion later.

This is the first multilateral discussion involving North Korea and other countries since four-way talks upon a stable peace in the Korean Peninsula involving North Korea, southern Korea, China and the United States broke opposite four years ago. We welcome the fact that a strange consultative process has managed to obtain started.

if it be not that it is difficult to imagine anything tangible will become visible soon. There are in this way many variables in terms of the rejoinders the United States or North Korea could make, and the road ahead could be bumpy indeed.

about of the bumps have already appeared. U Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld publicly declared last week there was ''no price that we would be willing to pay, that they would be willing to accept, to stop engaging in what they're doing with notice to the development of nuclear weapons.'' In other words, the United States will not engage in quid pro quo on a level if North Korea abandons its nuclear evolution program.

North Korea answered the following day with a statement that declared they are making fortunate progress in the final stage toward reprocessing worn out fuel rods. Since the formal translation of the remark initially said, ``We are favorably reprocessing ... spent firing material rods,'' it sparked a furor within President George W Bush's administration, with hard-liners voicing reservations about pursuing the three-way talks.

If North Korea begins reprocessing its exhausted nuclear fuel, it could extract plutonium that could be refined for nuclear weapons production. Doing likewise would cross a red line the United States could not have charge of While the actual start of combustible matter rod reprocessing is not confirmed, it is logical to assume the United States trusts North Korea calm less.

Rumsfeld, chuff by the agency of victory in the war in Iraq, probably made his remark as a way of staring down North Korea, while at the same time restraining Powell and others in the Bush administration who support international cooperation. The disharmony within the Bush administration could complicate things in the coming days.

North Korea has called for a meeting with southward Korea soon, and has asked that toward the south Korea provide rice and fertilizer aid. North Korea has not indicated any intention of mending palingss with Japan. North Korea's actions chase an established pattern of maneuvers that appear to beed designed to divide Japan, the United States and southern Korea in advance of the Beijing talks.

China's involvement in the proces is worth noting. Before the three-way talks, North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il dispatched a end aide to Beijing. China talked with the United States and North Korea separately to prepare for the first phase of talks. The fate of these three-way talks now be pendents upon how seriously China takes them.

For Bush's administration, a military solution in North Korea would be incomparably more difficult than it has been in Iraq. Since the war in Iraq, however, North Korea, finding itself at the brink, may have felt compell to pick out between nuclear armament and compromise with the United States.

Having the three-way talks bear fruit while keeping tensions from building requires perseverance above all besides If these talks are onward the right track, Japan and southward Korea will naturally have to be involved, which is what they hope

(April 25)

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