Chief delegates from Japan and China to the six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear ambitions agreed Wednesday in Tokyo to work together on resuming the meetings, now in recess, next week as scheduled.
Kenichiro Sasae, director general of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei also agreed that the six nations should try to hammer out a document aimed at denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula based on a draft produced during the last session, which ended Aug. 7, an official said.
Wu did not say whether China is preparing a new draft, according to the official.
During their talks at the Foreign Ministry, Sasae and Wu did not discuss exactly when China, Japan, North and South Korea, Russia and the United States will reconvene the talks.
Wu visited Tokyo to coordinate policies with Sasae on the nuclear issue before the talks resume, particularly North Korea's insistence that its purported nuclear programs for peaceful purposes be tolerated.
Sasae maintained Japan is in step with the U.S. in demanding that North Korea dismantle all of its nuclear programs, including civilian, the official said. That difference led to the latest round of talks breaking for a recess.
Wu expressed hope Japan and North Korea will settle their bilateral issues, including North Korea's abductions of Japanese citizens decades ago, through dialogue, but he did not elaborate, the official said.