By Reuben Staines
Staff Reporter

South Korea, China and Japan on Friday sought to sooth escalating tensions over North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs and reconfirmed their commitment to multilateral talks aimed at ending the standoff.

In separate meetings on the sidelines of a ministerial session of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Kyoto, Japan, top diplomatic officials from the three countries expressed concern over recent negative developments in the nuclear crisis.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Ban Ki-moon also urged his Chinese counterpart Li Zhaoxing to use his country’s influence over the North to convince it to return to the six-party talks, which have remained stalled since June.

``It’s important that China continues to exert efforts,’’ Ban said before meeting Li. ``China is well aware of its role.’’

The nuclear dispute has deepened since North Korea shut down its reactor at Yongbyon early last month and threatened to extract spent plutonium to increase its nuclear arsenal. It followed this up by test-firing a short-range missile into the East Sea.

``The two ministers agreed that diplomacy is the best way to resolve the North’s nuclear issue,’’ Park Joon-woo, director of the Asia-Pacific Bureau of South Korea’s Foreign Ministry, told reporters in a briefing after the meeting.

The nuclear issue was also a key topic of Ban’s meeting in the afternoon with Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura, although a simmering history dispute between the two countries dominated the one-hour talks.

``The two ministers expressed concerns about the current situation and once again urged the North to make a strategic choice,’’ Park said. ``But they agreed that the six-party talks are the best option to resolve the issue and decided to closely cooperate to get the talks restarted.’’

Ban and Machimura also agreed to arrange a summit between South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in Seoul in late June as previously planned, according to Park.

``Minister Ban urged Japan to show a more sincere attitude and to make the summit successful as it will be an important meeting to decide the future direction of our bilateral relations,’’ Park told reporters.

Tokyo has been locked in an emotional diplomatic row with Seoul after it renewed its claim on the South Korean-held Dokdo islets and approved textbooks that glorify its imperialistic past and gloss over wartime atrocities and other brutal acts during its 1910-45 colonial rule of Korea.

Machimura said Japan is trying to move forward efforts to address historical problems, such as the repatriation of the remains of Koreans who were forced into labor and died in Japan and compensation for the victims of its colonial rule, according to Park.

On Saturday, Ban, Li and Machimura will hold a three-way session to find ways of reviving the six-party talks, which also involve the United States and Russia, and discuss other regional topics such as the establishment of the East Asia Community (EAC).

rjs@koreatimes.co.kr