SANTIAGO, Nov 19 (AFP) - Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi urged North Korea to drop its nuclear weapons program and underscored Tokyo's support for Brazil, Germany and India getting permanent UN Security Council seats.
"North Korea's nuclear and missile problem is a serious challenge, not only to the peace and stability of the northeast Asia region but also to the international nuclear non-proliferatrion system," Koizumi told the daily El Mercurio before leaving Tokyo for Santiago, host of this weekend's APEC summit.
"We must convince North Korea ... that it will be in their interest to agree to carry out this dialogue unconditionally and abandon their nuclear plans completely," he said.
Pyongyang appears to be signaling a readiness to return to stalled multilateral talks instead of insisting on bilateral US-North Korea negotiations to resolve the crisis, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said this week.
If confirmed by Pyongyang, the new stance could jolt life back into multilateral talks seeking to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program.
Three rounds of multilateral talks have taken place since the standoff erupted in October 2002, bringing together the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States in Beijing. All but North Korea are members of APEC.
In September, Brazil, Germany, India and Japan launched a united campaign for permanent seats on the UN Security Council, with mutual pledges of support for each other's candidacies.
The 15-nation Security Council has had the same five permanent members with veto power -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- since the UN was established in 1945, after World War II.
11/19/2004 17:14 GMT - AFP