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UK, N. Korean officials to meet
LONDON, England (CNN) -- British diplomats will meet next week in London with a North Korean delegation over fears that North Korea has and is developing nuclear weaponry, a government spokeswoman said. "In our view it's important to remain engaged with North Korea. We want to use every opportunity to put our concerns across and urge them to comply with their international obligations," the spokeswoman said. The North Korean delegation is being led by Vice Foreign Minister Choe Su Hon, while British Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammel is expected to lead the UK side. It is not known what day the talks will begin and how long they are expected to be. Britain and North Korea have diplomatic relations, but the spokeswoman said "it's under review." The spokeswoman said Britain can't expect to have normal relations until the nuclear issues are resolved. This will be the third visit by a North Korean delegation since December 2001. The United States, China and North Korea held talks in Beijing last week. One administration official said that during a meeting at the talks, North Korea's representative, Li Gun, pulled aside Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly and told him "blatantly and boldly" that the country has at least one nuclear weapon. However, there was no independent confirmation of that statement. North Korea did not officially comment, although in the past the country has stated it has the right to possess nuclear weapons. The U.S. delegation also revealed little about the talks. South Korean Foreign Minister Yoon Young-kwan, after a debriefing from Kelly, told reporters Friday in Seoul that he was not told whether North Korea had admitted to having a nuclear weapon. (Full story) Meanwhile, the United States is examining a new proposal from North Korea made at the Beijing talks, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official told CNN after a meeting between Kelly and Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda. According to the Foreign Ministry official, Kelly told Fukuda that North Korea offered a "new bold proposal" to resolve the current nuclear standoff.
While Kelly described the details of the proposal to Japanese officials, the Japanese government is not releasing further details about the proposal's contents until it can be further studied by officials in Washington, Tokyo, and Seoul. Japanese officials said the U.S., Japan and South Korea have agreed to hold a meeting soon to discuss the outcome of this week's talks in Beijing between the United States, North Korea and China. The United States had originally wanted Japan and South Korea to be included in the first round of talks aimed to end the current standoff over North Korea's nuclear weapons program. The Foreign Ministry official said that Kelly told Fukuda he had raised the need for Japan and South Korea to participate in future rounds of multilateral talks. However, Kelly said the North Korean side did not respond. Japanese officials have reacted cautiously to U.S. claims that North Korea's chief negotiator Li Gun confirmed to Kelly on the sidelines of the talks that North Korea does have nuclear weapons. "The priority is to confirm the facts," Japanese defense minister Shigeru Ishiba said Friday. "This will not affect Japan's defense policy immediately." Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi emphasized the need for a peaceful solution. "We would like to solve the issue peacefully and we are hoping to continue the dialogue tenaciously," she said. -- CNN's Tokyo Bureau Chief Rebecca MacKinnon contributed to this report
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