Date set for resumption of North Korea nuclear talks

Disarmament talks on North Korea’s nuclear programme will resume on December 18 in Beijing, China announced today, ending the North’s 13-month-old boycott in protest over US financial sanctions.

Diplomats have been trying to set a date since leader Kim Jong Il’s government agreed to return after it tested a nuclear bomb on October 9.

“The second phase of the fifth round of six-party talks is to be held on December 18 in Beijing,” said a one-sentence statement by Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang on the ministry website.

Participants are the two Koreas, the United States, host China, Russia and Japan, which demanded that Pyongyang make progress toward abandoning atomic weapons.

“At the six-party talks, we must push for North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons a step at a time,” Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in Tokyo.

“We must urge North Korea to take concrete steps.” Tokyo also plans to bring up the lingering issue of North Korea’s abduction of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and ’80s, said Japan’s chief Cabinet secretary, Yasuhisa Shiozaki.