Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso and visiting senior U.S. diplomats agreed on Monday that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) should abandon all nuclear programs in line with U.N. resolutions and that U.N. and Japanese sanctions would remain in place even after the meeting started.

The agreement was reached at a meeting between Nicholas Burns, who is U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, Robert Joseph, the Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, and Aso.

Japan and the United States are in agreement that Security Council Resolution 1718 "must be fully and effectively implemented" until the DPRK "meets all of the demands of the Security Council," Joseph was quoted as saying by Kyodo News.

Aso said the two nations agreed that they would not accept the DPRK as "a nuclear state" and that sanctions in line with the resolution as well as Japan's own sanctions "would not be relaxed" just because the six-party talks were being held.

The foreign minister said he would propose holding five-nation talks with his counterparts from the United States, South Korea, China and Russia to discuss the DPRK's nuclear program on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit in Vietnam's Hanoi next week.

The DPRK nuclear test early last month sparked U.N. condemnations and sanctions. Japan had imposed its own sweeping sanctions before the nuclear test.

Pyongyang agreed on Nov. 1 to return the negotiation table on the premise that the issue of lifting U.S. financial sanctions against the DPRK would be discussed and settled within the framework of the six-party talks.

Joseph and Burns also met with Japanese Defense Agency chief Fumio Kyuma. Joseph was also quoted as saying during the meeting that trilateral cooperation between Australia, Japan, the United States is necessary in operational and intelligence matters.

Source: Xinhua