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US welcomes talks on North Korea at ASEAN forum

The US welcomed the prospect of six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program on the sidelines of an ASEAN meeting next week, as momentum appeared to gather for seizing the opportunity.

Japan and China agreed on Friday that all six nations party to the talks should meet at the regional forum in Kuala Lumpur, and China indicated it opposed holding talks without Pyongyang, Japan's Kyodo news agency said.

The US and South Korea had shown interest in holding five-way talks if North Korea refused to return to the negotiating table.

But US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice said on Friday she would be "very happy" to attend six-party talks in Kuala Lumpur.

Speaking to a group of Asian journalists, Rice stressed that any nuclear negotiations with North Korea must be within the six-party framework of the two Koreas, Japan, the US, China and Russia.

"If the North Koreans want to come to six-party talks at any level, I think it would be fine, but we need to do it at six parties," the secretary of state said when asked if she would be willing to meet with North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun, who was expected to attend the ASEAN Regional Forum on Friday.

"But if we could have a six-party meeting in Kuala Lumpur, I would be very happy to attend," she said.

Rice defended the US' insistence on a six-party framework, saying last week's UN Security Council resolution criticizing Pyongyang's test launches showed "that this is a problem that North Korea has with the entire international community."

North Korea has shunned the six-way talks since November to protest US financial sanctions on a Macau bank accused of money laundering on its behalf.

Japan and South Korea have agreed to use the regional security forum, organized by the ASEAN, to press for North Korea's return to six-nation talks.

Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) used a phone conversation on Friday with his South Korean counterpart, Roh Moo-hyun, to call for new six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

Hu urged "calm and restraint" as regional tensions remained high over Pyongyang's July 5 missile launches, it said.

Rice called North Korea "a completely irresponsible state and dangerous" for its missile tests.

"When you look at them testing missiles, not telling anybody they're firing them in all different directions, and they're saying that they have a nuclear weapons capability ... that they could make those together is very dangerous," she said.
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