Foreign Minister Song Min-soon and his new Japanese counterpart Nobutaka Machimura Friday agreed to work closely together to denuclearize North Korea at an early date, the Foreign Ministry said.
The discussions on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue came in their first telephone conversation since the Japanese foreign minister came into office earlier this week, the ministry said in a press release.
Song received the call from Machimura in Moscow where he began a two-day visit Thursday, according to the ministry.
"Foreign Minister Machimura said his country will do its utmost to make progress in the North Korea-Japan diplomatic normalization talks to be held Sept. 5-6 in Mongolia," the statement said.
Song replied he would welcome improvements in relations between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and Japan and that his country would work to help improve bilateral ties.
The two also agreed to meet on the sidelines of the coming summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Sydney to discuss ways to improve relations between their countries, the ministry said.
The Japan-DPRK normalization talks stem from a six-nation deal signed in February, under which the DPRK is supposed to declare and disable all its nuclear facilities and programs.
In return, the DPRK will receive up to 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil or equivalent aid and other political benefits, including normalization of ties with the United States and Japan.
Source: Xinhua
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