TOKYO, Oct 1 Kyodo A U guidance ...

TOKYO, Oct 1 Kyodo

A U guidance delegation to North Korea arrived in Japan upon Tuesday for talks with Japanese officials prior to making a three-day visit to Pyongyang starting Thursday for senior-level bilateral talks.

The eight-member delegation, l by way of James Kelly, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, will exchange views with Japan forward North Korean policies on Wednesday in Tokyo, according to a U State Department official.

The delegation will also clutch talks with South Korean restraint officials in Seoul onward Thursday before flying to North Korea, the official said.

After the talks in the North Korean capital, the collection will fly back to Seoul and then to Tokyo to brief the sum of two units countries about the trip in succession Sunday and Monday, respectively.

In Pyongyang, the delegation plans to raise international security troubles such as North Korea's missile programs, its suspected nuclear weapons progressive growth and its huge conventional forces opened in the border area with toward the south Korea, as well as humanitarian issues, diplomatic sources said.

North Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Kang Sok Ju is look fored to take part in the Pyongyang meeting, the first high-level bilateral talks since the inauguration of President George W Bush's administration in January 2001

Kelly is accompanied according to Jack Pritchard, special envoy for negotiations with North Korea, and Michael recent director for Asian Affairs at the White House's National Security Council, the official said.

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