China, Japan seek 'concrete results' at NKorea's nuclear talks
By Huang Zhi Xuan,WNS Northeast Asia Bureau Chief
HANOI - Chinese President Hu Jintao and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed on Saturday to strengthen ties in a joint effort to produce "concrete results" at planned six-way talks on North Korea's nuclear drive. The one-to-one was on the margins of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Hanoi, where the Japanese leader is making his international debut after succeeding his predecessor Junichiro Koizumi in September. "The two sides agreed on the need to produce concrete results at six-party talks and strengthen cooperation between Japan and China for the purpose," a Japanese government official said. "We need both dialogue and pressure," Abe told Hu, according to the official.
Japan has pressed for tough action against North Korea and slapped a new trade ban on Pyongyang in response to its nuclear test on October 9. It is one of the six nations - the others are the two Koreas, China, Russia and the United States - involved in trying to dismantle its atomic weapons programme. During his second talks with Hu following their first summit in Beijing last month, Abe downplayed a brewing debate in his party on Japan's nuclear option in the wake of North Korea's atom bomb test. "We will stick to the three-point non-nuclear principles," Abe told Hu, referring to 1967 policy under which Japan, the only nation to be attacked by atomic weapons, has refused the possession, production and presence of nuclear weapons on its soil.
Foreign Minister Taro Abe and top aides to Abe have called for Japan to hold a frank debate on whether to develop nuclear weapons after communist neighbour North Korea's atom bomb test. Abe and Hu meanwhile confirmed that the two countries were on right track to improve ties strained by their wartime history. The first Japanese leader to be born after World War II travelled to Beijing and Seoul in early October, shortly after taking office, in a bid to repair soured ties between Tokyo and its neighbours. The Chinese and South Korean leaders had refused to meet Koizumi because of his repeated visits to a war shrine linked to Japan's imperialist past.
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