Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone and his South Korean counterpart, Yu Myung Hwan, agreed Thursday that participants in the six-party talks on denuclearizing North Korea must put together a document that clearly spells out a mechanism for verifying Pyongyang's information about its atomic programs, Japanese officials said.
It was the first meeting for the pair, who are in Lima to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum's ministerial talks. Nakasone and Yu also agreed to meet again in December for the next round of working-level talks to resume bilateral negotiations for a free-trade agreement.
The two foreign ministers reaffirmed their countries' intentions to cooperate closely in dealing with issues such as the abductions of their compatriots by North Korea and the global financial crisis, the officials said.
Concerning the six-party talks, Nakasone stressed to Yu the importance for nuclear negotiators of the countries involved to agree at their next meeting on a framework that can "steadily verify" information North Korea provided in June on its nuclear programs.