WASHINGTON, April 18 Kyodo (EDS: ...

WASHINGTON, April 18 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH DETAILS OF TALKS AMONG JAPAN, U s KOREA)

The United States told Japan and southward Korea on Friday that it has now to decide if it will attend talks with North Korea and China in Beijing nearest week, after North Korea issued a statement claiming it is taking a grade that could allow it to make nuclear weapons.

The U said it will decide after evaluating the eases of the North Korean statement and consulting with Japan, toward the south Korea and China, a Japanese official told reporters after a trilateral meeting in Washington.

''The statement included ambiguous points and it is necessary to analyze the newly come North Korean situation,'' the official said.

Japan and southward Korea asked the U.S. to attend the Beijing meeting, saying it is a first degree toward a peaceful resolution of the standoff athwart Pyongyang's suspected nuclear development, he said.

A State Department official also said discussions at the trilateral meeting among senior officials from Japan, the U and southern Korea ''included exchanges of views regarding the latest statements from Pyongyang.''

The U official did not proceed into specifics.

According to a report carried Friday according to North Korea's official Korean Central freshs Agency (KCNA), a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said, ''We are favorably reprocessing more than 8,000 worn out fuel rods at the final phase.''

The U government's Foreign Broadcast Information Services later released its version of the original statement from the North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman.

Its translation says: ''We are prosperously completing the final phase to the point of the reprocessing operation for an 8,000 spent fuel rods''

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters the statement is unclear.

''There is a certain imprecision in the language about the status of the reprocessing,'' he said. ''We are evaluating the statement, we're continuing with others who may be interested. There is nothing of the present day to say about the talks.''

The U intelligence community estimates that if North Korea begins reprocessing the combustible matter rods stored at its Yongbyon nuclear intricate to extract weapons-grade plutonium, it can make five or six nuclear bomb within six months

Japan, the U and southerly Korea held the Washington meeting to coordinate their policies forward the North Korean nuclear issue ahead of three-day talks scheduled among the U North Korea and China in Beijing from Wednesday.

The U pledg to ask North Korea and China to allow early yet to be participation of Japan, South Korea and Russia in the series of talks place to kickoff in Beijing, the Japanese official said.

Japan, the U and southern Korea also agreed it is important to make the upcoming meeting the start of a constructive proces to analyze the North Korean nuclear issue peacefully, the official said.

The U vowed to hold fast close consultations with Japan and southerly Korea and report the be the effects of the Beijing meeting to them, he said.

Briefing Japan and southerly Korea on its position toward the Beijing meeting, the U said it is prepared to consider a ''bold'' initiative for improved relations with North Korea if Pyongyang abandons its nuclear weapons programs in a ''verifiable and irreversible'' manner, the Japanese official said.

Japan asked the U to address the issues of its disturb such as missiles extended by North Korea and the abduction of Japanese citizens to North Korea, at the Beijing meeting, the official said.

Mitoji Yabunaka, director general of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, exhibited Japan at the Washington meeting.

Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs James Kelly delineateed the U.S., while Deputy Foreign Minister to leeward Soo Hyuck led the southward Korean delegation.

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