S. Korea, China to seek N. Korea talks

TOKYO, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- South Korea and China will work together to persuade North Korea to return quickly to suspended six-way denuclearization talks, an official source says.

Citing an unnamed source close to South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, the Yonhap news agency reported South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi agreed Sunday in Tokyo to strive for an early resumption of the suspended North Korean denuclearization talks.

The source, accompanying Lee at the Forum for East Asia-Latin America Cooperation, told the news agency, "(Yu and Yang) noted a need to resume the six-party talks at an early date and agreed to closely cooperate toward that end."

The meeting between the foreign ministers came on the sidelines of the forum, in which the top diplomats from 14 other Asian countries, including Australia, Japan and Brunei, as well as those of 18 Latin American nations, gathered in Tokyo during the weekend.

Yonhap said Yu asked China to be aggressive in seeking an early resumption of the six-nation nuclear negotiations involving the two Koreas, the United States, Russia, Japan and China, which were last held in December 2008.