Senior Japanese and South Korean officials agreed Tuesday to urge North Korea to abandon its suspected nuclear weapons development program during the six-party talks next week.
South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo Hyuck met with Vice Foreign Minister Yukio Takeuchi in Tokyo to discuss how the two nations will respond if North Korea promises during the talks to freeze its nuclear activities, a Japanese official said.
Officials of Japan, South Korea, the United States, North Korea, China and Russia are scheduled to meet Feb. 25 in Beijing to defuse tensions over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.
The official said Lee and Takeuchi discussed conditions for Japan and South Korea to provide Pyongyang with energy assistance, including supplies of heavy fuel oil.
The North Korean Foreign Ministry said in December it was ready to freeze its nuclear weapons program in exchange for energy aid and being removed from the U.S. list of nations that support terrorism.
Lee, scheduled to leave Tokyo on Wednesday, also met with Mitoji Yabunaka, director of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau.
Yabunaka visited Pyongyang last week for bilateral talks with North Korea, and briefed Lee of his trip, which focused on North Korea's abductions of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s.