Japan to give North Korea a deadline for discussions

Japan is expected to propose a deadline for North Korea to attend nuclear talks or face action at the UN Security Council, a senior official of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's political party said Thursday.

Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura might discuss this proposal with his Chinese counterpart Li Zhaoxing (李肇星) while attending the Asia-Europe Meeting this weekend at the Japanese ancient city of Kyoto.

Machimura indicated at a parliamentary meeting recently that he might raise this issue with the Chinese foreign minister, Yoshimasa Hayashi of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party told reporters in Washington, where he held talks on the whaling issue.

Hayashi is a member of Japan's House of Councilors in which he heads a special panel on foreign affairs and defense. He is also deputy director of the Upper House policy council.

"We asked this question at our committee and I definitely think that he might take it up [with the Chinese foreign minister]," he said.

Six-party negotiations designed to end Pyongyang's nuclear arms programs -- which group the two Koreas, Russia, China, Japan and the US -- have been stalled for nearly a year since a third round of talks last June.

The North has boycotted the China-hosted nuclear disarmament talks since it failed to show up at a fourth round scheduled last September, citing "hostile" US policy toward the communist state.

Meanwhile Pyongyang has publicly announced that it has nuclear weapons and that it could manufacture more of them.

Hayashi said the five parties should give North Korea a deadline to enter negotiations and if it failed to attend the talks, it should be referred to the UN Security Council.

"The important aspect of the five party talks is that among them, China, Russia and the United States are members of the UN Security Council and if they give a deadline, it will send a clear signal to North Korea," he said.

"There is no other way to end the deadlock but to impose a deadline to North Korea," he said.

US President George W. Bush is considering the possibility of taking North Korea to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions if Pyongyang does not return to the negotiations, US officials say.

But the US president indicated in a press conference last week that shifting away from the talks and towards a more muscular diplomatic approach would require agreement from Washington's four partners.

Meanwhile, China yesterday rebuffed criticism that it is not putting enough pressure North Korea to resume talks on its nuclear program and urged other countries to do more.

The US, Japan and South Korea have all called on China to intervene further with Pyongyang, which relies on Beijing as its main ally, after the Stalinist state suspended talks and boasted of a nuclear deterrent.

"China has done a very good job. But China alone is not enough," Li told reporters.

"We should work with other countries and the international community to push for achieving the goal of a non-nuclearized Korean peninsula and for peace and stability on the Korean peninsula," he said after talks with his South Korean counterpart Ban Ki-Moon.

"We will continue to work hard to maintain contact and step up cooperation to push for the resumption of six-party talks at an early date," Li said.

"Only this will be beneficial to all parties and will be beneficial to achieving the goal of a non-nuclearized Korean peninsula," he said.

Ban, before leaving South Korea for the meeting here, said he "will call on China to play a more active role" in the North Korean crisis.

On Monday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura jointly called on China to do more.