Japan proposed in a trilateral meeting Wednesday in Washington that an international project to build light-water nuclear reactors in North Korea be suspended, conference sources said.
The proposal came in an attempt to bridge a gap between the United States and South Korea over the project. It is also aimed at pressing Pyongyang to agree to five-party multilateral talks on its nuclear weapons program involving North Korea, the U.S., China, Japan and South Korea, the sources said.
South Korea, which fears antagonizing its northern neighbor and wants the project to be continued, would not back the proposal, causing the three nations to extend their talks for another day.
As North Korean claims to be nuclear-armed, Washington has been seeking to suspend the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization project to build the two reactors in exchange for Pyongyang freezing and dismantling its nuclear weapons program.