North Korea said on Saturday it would not recognise Japan at international nuclear talks starting next week, further straining ties that have already been damaged due to North Korean agents kidnapping Japanese, reported reuters. decades ago. Impoverished North Korea will meet five regional powers including Japan and the United States from Monday in Beijing for talks that will likely be the Bush administration's last chance to advance a sputtering disarmament-for-aid deal. "We will neither treat Japan as a party to the talks nor deal with it even if it impudently appears in the conference room, lost to shame," the North's official KCNA news agency said quoting an unnamed Foreign Ministry spokesman. Japan has said it will not join China, Russia, South Korea and the United States in providing aid to North Korea unless the matter of its abductees has been solved, prompting Pyongyang to say that Japan should be removed from the six-country talks. North Korea regularly criticises Japan in its official media for failing to pay what it sees as proper contrition for its 1910-1945 colonial rule over the Korean peninsula. U.S. envoy Christopher Hill and seasoned North Korean nuclear negotiator Kim Kye-gwan on Friday wrapped up two days of talks in Singapore trying to make progress in setting up a system to verify claims the North made about its nuclear programme. Analysts said North Korea, sensing the Bush administration might be looking for a rare diplomatic success before leaving office in January, wants to squeeze last-minute concessions at the six-way meeting in Beijing. Failing that, it will likely play a waiting game until President-elect Barack Obama takes office. "We have a lot of work to do in Beijing," Hill said after arriving in Seoul. Hill was scheduled to leave for the Chinese capital on Sunday. "It doesn't matter what day of the week, they (North Koreans) are always issuing statements. I think it would behove them to issue fewer statements and do a little more work in terms of developing plans and ways for their country to progress." The most recent snag for the often-delayed nuclear dealings has been the North's reluctance to allow international inspectors to take nuclear samples out of the country for testing. Washington maintains that Pyongyang is obliged to allow such tests. U.S. officials have said the North Korea has produced about 50 kgs (110 lbs) of plutonium --- enough for about six to eight nuclear bombs.
