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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea vowed to ignore Japan at upcoming six-nation talks on its nuclear program, citing Tokyo’s refusal to send aid to the impoverished country as part of a disarmament agreement.
Saturday’s statement came as negotiators from six nations - the U.S., Russia, China, South Korea, Japan and North Korea - prepared to meet Monday in Beijing for talks that are expected to focus on how to verify Pyongyang’s accounting of its nuclear program.
"We will neither treat Japan as a party to the talks nor deal with it even if it impudently appears in the conference room," an unidentified North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
North Korea has issued similar warnings in the past, but Tokyo has continued to attend the negotiations that began in 2003.
Officials at Japan’s Foreign Ministry could not be reached for comment Saturday. In Seoul, South Korean nuclear envoy Kim Sook told The Associated Press that the talks should include all six nations. He declined to elaborate.
