U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Tuesday welcomed North Korea s announcement that it would return to six-nation talks aimed at ending its nuclear weapons program, deputy U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe said. Annan hopes the talks can be reconvened soon, and that they will yield positive results leading to lower tensions in the region, Okabe told repoters. The announcement came from an unpublicized meeting in Beijing between envoys of China, North Korea, and the United States. The other three parties to the six-nation talks are South Korea, Japan, and Russia. The United States, China, and Russia said they were pleased by Pyongyang s planned returned to negotiations, but Japan signaled it would not return to the table until North Korea renounces its nuclear weapons program. This announcement is a welcome step, Japanese Ambassador Kenzo Oshima told reporters after a UN Security Council meeting. Of course, we will see what happens next. There are many other things that DPRK (Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea) is obligated to respect in accordance with resolution 1718 on the nuclear missile development programs. North Korea conducted an underground nuclear weapon test earlier this month, prompting the U.N. Security Council to impose financial and weapons sanctions on Pyongyang.
