The top U.S. envoy on North Korea's nuclear program arrived Monday in Japan, as Tokyo arranged to send its foreign minister to a meeting on the crisis this week in South Korea with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill told reporters at Tokyo's international airport that Japan and the U.S. needed to work together and discuss what measures can be taken to encourage North Korea to follow «a different path» in the wake of its claimed nuclear test last week. «We want to talk about implementation of the (U.N. Security Council resolution) and other measures ... and make sure that North Korea is not able to obtain the technology or financing to continue these programs,» Hill said. «We need to make sure that the North Koreans choose a different path than the one they currently have,» he added. Hill was slated to meet with Kenichiro Sasae, Japan's chief envoy to the six-nation talks, late Monday afternoon in Tokyo, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The six-party talks comprise China, Japan, Russia, the United States and South and North Korea. Hill will be in Japan until Tuesday, U.S. Embassy spokesman Jeffrey Hill said. South Korea's Foreign Ministry said the envoy will go to Seoul that day for talks with his counterpart, Chun Yung-woo. It gave no more details. Rice was to arrive in Japan on Wednesday before traveling on to South Korea and China, the Associated Press reported. Japan was making arrangements for Foreign Minister Taro Aso to join Rice on the next stage of her trip and attend a three-way meeting in Seoul on Thursday with South Korea's Ban Ki-moon.
