The chief Japanese and U.S. nuclear negotiators have agreed to continue pressing for North Korea's denuclearization through the six-party talks under President Barack Obama's administration, according to officials at the Foreign Ministry.
Akitaka Saiki, director general of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, and Christopher Hill, U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, reaffirmed the countries' joint position of not compromising easily in negotiations with North Korea on how to verify its nuclear programs.
They are also believed to have agreed that given Pyongyang's recent provocative actions, it would be difficult for much progress to be made on U.S.-North Korea relations at present.
On the abduction issue, Hill was quoted as emphasizing that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who met with Japanese leaders on Tuesday, places importance on the highly emotional dispute.
Japan was angered last year when President George W. Bush dropped North Korea from the U.S. blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism before the abductions were addressed.