NKorea's moves 'untrustworthy': Japan envoy

N Korea's moves 'untrustworthy': Japan envoy
(AFP) – Sep 7, 2009

TOKYO — Japan's top negotiator on North Korea said on Monday that Pyongyang's recent diplomatic overtures were "untrustworthy" in light of its ongoing nuclear weapons development.

North Korea has shown "small displays of diplomacy and moves to build peace," Akitaka Saiki told reporters after meeting his US counterpart Stephen Bosworth.

But its refusal to commit to the denuclearisation process "makes its diplomatic efforts untrustworthy", he added.

North Korea announced on Friday that it had reached the final stages of enriching uranium, a second way of making nuclear bombs, and was also building more plutonium-based atomic weapons.

"This kind of unilateral nuclear development is a cause for worry. We are making efforts to stop North Korea's provocative attitude towards the international community," Saiki, a career diplomat, said.

The North has recently struck a more conciliatory note after months of tension, freeing two US journalists, sending envoys to talks in Seoul and showing willingness for direct contact with Washington on the nuclear standoff.

But Saiki said he had been assured by Bosworth that there were "absolutely no prospects of (bilateral) US-North Korean talks in the near term."

The North has been pushing for direct talks with the United States since its April move to quit the six-nation process grouping the two Koreas, the US, Japan, Russia and China in protest at the UN censure of a rocket launch.

Bosworth, who was in Japan after visiting Beijing and Seoul, has said that talks would only take place between the United States and North Korea within the six-party framework.

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