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US, South Korean and Japanese officials are expected to meet in Washington as early as next week to prepare for six-party talks in China over the nuclear issue of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), a US official said Friday.
"We expect that we will have an informal meeting with the South Koreans and the Japanese in Washington in the near future to prepare for the six-party talks," said the official, who asked not to be identified.
However, the official said the date of the meeting had not yet been settled on and depended largely on when the six-party talks would be held.
"Nothing is set yet, we're still working on the details," the official said. But Japan's Sankei Shimbun newspaper, quoting Japanese government sources, said the meeting will be held on Wednesday and Thursday.
The six-way talks are expected to be in Beijing later this month or in September. They will involve the DPRK, China, South Korea, Japan, Russia and the United States.
US President George W. Bush has said he is optimistic that DPRK's acceptance of the multilateral talks will lead to the dismantling of its nuclear weapons program. Pyongyang had been insisting it would only take part in direct talks with the United States.
(Xinhua News Agency August 9, 2003)
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