North Asia's big three pledge cooperation

North Asia's big three pledge cooperation

Reuters, Nusa Dua, Bali

Japan, China and South Korea pledged on Tuesday to cooperate in dealing with North Korea's nuclear arms program, days after a diplomatic spat between Tokyo and Beijing threatened to cloud their summit.

After meeting in Bali on the fringes of a summit of Southeast Asian leaders, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun signed a declaration affirming their commitment to a peaceful end to the nuclear crisis with Pyongyang.

The crisis was underscored when North Korea said on Tuesday it would not allow Japan to take part in any future multilateral talks on Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program. Japan said it would not accept the notion Pyongyang could decide who attends.

"North Korea has said Japan has nothing to do with the nuclear problem. But that is not the case," Japanese officials quoted Koizumi as saying in a later meeting with Wen.

The declaration among the three neighbors that have fought several wars in the past century followed a row last week between Tokyo and Beijing over chemical weapons. Japanese troops left the weapons behind in China after World War Two.

Koizumi invited Wen to make an early visit. The Chinese premier, who took office in March, appeared less enthusiastic.

"We must create a good atmosphere to make this possible," a Japanese official quoted Wen as saying.

He gave a hint as to how this could be achieved.

"We would like you to speed up the clearance of chemical weapons. This would remove a pain of the Chinese people from the hearts of the Chinese people," Wen was quoted as saying.

Last Friday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry summoned Japan's ambassador to complain that Tokyo had been slow in clearing up chemical weapons. One man was killed and more than 40 injured in August when containers of mustard gas were found at a construction site.

Koizumi has yet to visit China as prime minister.