North Korea nuclear talks may resume

TOKYO, JAPAN - Six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program may resume on September 2 and are likely to make more progress than the previous round, China's top envoy to the forum was quoted as saying.

But another report quoted a North Korean diplomatic source in Beijing as saying the talks were unlikely to resume even earlier.

"The talks could resume from September 2," visiting Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei was quoted by Mizuho Fukushima, leader of Japan's Social Democratic Party, as telling her in a meeting.

Fukushima told Reuters that Wu also said: "I think there will be more progress than before."

But an unnamed North Korean source told Interfax news agency: "In our opinion, there is little chance that the fourth round of the six-way talks could be resumed next week."

Wu is to visit Pyongyang soon, Fukushima said without elaborating. She said Wu had given her no further details about the talks, including whether the other parties to the talks had agreed to the September 2 date.

"He said the various countries are making efforts regarding the talks, and so for that reason more progress is likely than in previous rounds," Fukushima said.

Wu spoke to Fukushima on a "courtesy visit" to acknowledge a long history of good relations between the Communists and the Japanese socialists, a spokesman for the opposition party said.

The two Koreas, the United States, Japan, China and Russia met in Beijing for nearly two weeks before breaking off earlier this month with a decision to reconvene during the week of August 29. The talks were the first in more than a year.

A spokesman for the South Korean Foreign Ministry said he anticipated that the talks would begin next week, likely in the second half of the week, but that no firm date had been set.

There has been a flurry of diplomatic activity ahead next week, including contacts between U.S. and North Korean officials, in a bid to avoid another breakdown.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon met recently in Washington, and Japan's representative to the forum flew to the United States afterwards for a meeting with his U.S. counterpart.

A senior South Korean official said he was optimistic about prospects for a deal under which the North would abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions because Pyongyang has been presented with Washington's best-ever offer. "There has never been a more positive signal in 50 years than what the United States has offered the North," South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Lee Tae-sik told a forum in Seoul.

"The United States has promised normalization of relations in return for North Korea giving up all its nuclear programs. I think there will be some good result soon," he said.

In a sign that the U.S. position was softening ahead of the planned resumption of talks, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the top U.S. negotiator, said the issue of the North having a civilian nuclear plan was a "theoretical, downstream" issue that would not break a deal.

North Korea's insistence on the right to have a civilian nuclear program was the key sticking point in the last round.

U.S. officials have been skeptical about allowing North Korea to pursue a nuclear program for energy production out of concern that it might be used for military purposes.