The leaders of China, Japan and South Korea expressed concern over North Korea’s nuclear test and called for “effective steps” to break a stand off in talks to de-nuclearise the Korean peninsula, a joint statement said today.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will continue his annual visits to a war shrine, a close aide said today, despite furious objections from China and other Asian countries who say the visits glorify Japan’s past wartime brutality.