The United States rejected Tuesday a demand by the Democratic People's Republic of Korean to exclude Japan from any future six-party talks on the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula.

"Japan is a neighbor of North and South Korea and has vital interests at stake in the nuclear issue and in other areas as well," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters at a press briefing in Washington.

Boucher said Japan "clearly must and will continue to be a participant in the six-party talks" in order to achieve a diplomatic solution to DPRK's nuclear programs.

A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that the DPRK will exclude Japan from taking part in any future talks on the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula.

Japan is nothing but an obstacle to the peaceful settlement of the nuclear standoff, the spokesman said.

(Xinhua News Agency October 8, 2003)