(3rd LD) S. Korean, Japanese nuclear envoys meet ahead of inter-Korean summit

(ATTN: ADDs more info in last 2 paras)

SEOUL, April 23 (Yonhap) -- The top nuclear envoys of South Korea and Japan met Monday to discuss cooperation on North Korea and the issue of its nuclear weapons program ahead of the upcoming historic inter-Korean summit.

Lee Do-hoon, South Korea's top nuclear negotiator, held the meeting with his Japanese counterpart, Kenji Kanasugi, in Seoul.

"There are many significant events in the near future, which are the inter-Korean summit, followed by the U.S.-North Korea summit," Lee said at the start of the meeting.

"And in the course of this whole process, I hope that we will continue to have this kind of consultations so that we can bring about significant progress in denuclearizing North Korea," he added.

Kanasugi emphasized the importance of cooperation with relevant countries, including Japan and the U.S., in the runup to the planned summits with the North.

"Things have been moving very rapidly in recent months that makes our bilateral cooperation, as well as trilateral coordination with the U.S., all the more important," he said.

The meeting comes after the leaders of the United States and Japan met this week and exchanged views on the North Korea nuclear issue.

The two Koreas are set to hold a summit on the southern side of the truce village of Panmunjom on Friday, which will likely be followed by another summit between the U.S. and the North either in May or early June.

Denuclearization of the North and building lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula are expected to top the agenda at the summits.

On Saturday, North Korea announced that the country will suspend nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests and shut down the Punggye-ri nuclear test site, located in the northern area of the reclusive country.

Seoul's foreign ministry here said in a press release later in the day that the top nuclear envoys shared a "positive" evaluation of the recent developments surrounding the Korean Peninsula, apparently pointing to the North's announcement, and promised to "actively" cooperate to make the summits with the North a success.

Kanasugi also met with Kim Yong-kil, director-general for Northeast Asian affairs, to discuss bilateral ties and issues of mutual concern, a ministry official said.

He is said to have expressed concern over a civic group's push to install a statue commemorating Korean people forced into labor during Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula at the Japanese mission in the southern port city of Busan.

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