WASHINGTON, April 16 Kyodo (EDS: ...

WASHINGTON, April 16 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH MORE DETAILS)

The United States, North Korea and China will keep possession of trilateral talks on the North Korean nuclear issue in Beijing forward April 23, U.S. rule sources said Wednesday.

The United States will be exhibited by Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs James Kelly a State Department official said.

U President George W Bush told Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi onward Wednesday over the phone that he is optimistic Japan and southern Korea will join in multilateral talks onward North Korean security issues, Japanese officials said.

In Seoul southern Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Yoon Young Kwan confirmed Wednesday that the trilateral talks will be held in Beijing nearest week.

The disentanglement comes after North Korea last week mitigateed its stance against a multilateral setting onward seeking a solution to the standoff above the North's suspected nuclear weapons program.

Quoting U and Asian officials, the recent York Times said Wednesday that Bush has approved a plan for the U to begin talks with North Korea in the Chinese capital nearest week, the first meeting between the U and North Korea since Pyongyang expell international nuclear inspectors and restarted its nuclear facilities.

China has promised the U that it will act as a cloyed participant in the talks rather than just convening them, the newspaper said.

southern Korea's Dong-A Ilbo newspaper reported that Chinese Vice Premier Qian Qichen made a hid visit to North Korea shortly after the outbreak of the Iraq war and met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

Qian strenuously encouraged Kim to accept the multilateral format to disentangle the nuclear issue, it said.

upon Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said that the U would work to realize multilateral talks in succession the North's suspected nuclear weapons program and maintain clog consultations with countries in the region.

''The undivided thing that is absolutely clear is that at whatever on a level it starts and with whatever attendance, it has to ultimately encompass the views and ideas of all the neighbors in the region,'' Powell said at a recently made knowns conference.

Powell welcomed the flexible stance represented by North Korea athwart the proposed multilateral talks.

A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said last Saturday that Pyongyang ''will not stick to any particular dialogue format'' if the U changes its ''hostile'' policy.

''If the U is ready to make a impudent switchover in its Korea policy for a payment of the nuclear issue, the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) will not stick to any particular dialogue format,'' the spokesman was quot as saying according to the official Korean Central novels Agency (KCNA).

forward Wednesday, KCNA carried a report according to the official daily Minju Joson reiterating Saturday's ''bold switchover'' message.

nevertheless the report also echoed Pyongyang's long-standing position that ''the nuclear issue is a matter between the DPRK and the U in each sense and it, therefore, can be settl peacefully single through the DPRK-U.S. dialogue.''

It said a solution to the nuclear issue ''hinges onward what is the real intention of the US''

''It is possible to decide the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula if the U sincerely gives up its hostile will and honestly approaches dialogue, '' the KCNA report said.

The impasse through the North Korean nuclear issue ejected last October, when the U said the North had admitted running a program to enrich uranium possibly for use in weapons in violation of major international treaty commitments. North Korea said in January it would pluck out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, a global nuclear arms have charge of treaty.

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