China, Japan, S.Korea Call for Renewal of Talks on N.Korean Nuclear Issue

South Korean President Park Geun-hye, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and Chinese Premier of the State Council Li Keqiang called for the renewal the negotiations on the North Korean nuclear program.

TOKYO (Sputnik) — Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing called on Sunday for joint actions to renew the negotiations on the North Korean nuclear program, local media reported.

On Sunday, South Korean President Park Geun-hye, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and Chinese Premier of the State Council Li Keqiang met in Seoul to discuss the most important issues of trilateral cooperation.

The six-party talks on North Korean nuclear weapons program should be renewed to prevent the worsening of situation on the Korean peninsula, Park said at a joint press conference with Abe and Li.

The six-party talks, comprising North Korea, South Korea, Japan, China, Russia and the United States, were launched in 2003 after Pyongyang withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The negotiations stalled in 2009 after North Korea refused to take part in further discussions.

Apart from the Pyongyang nuclear military program, the sides of the summit discussed a wide range of the economic and trade cooperation issues as well as strengthening of multilateral cooperation between three states.