South Korea, US, Japan hold talks on North Korea

South Korea, the United States and Japan have agreed to hold a trilateral meeting of their foreign ministers to discuss the situation on the Korean Peninsula following the death of Kim Jong-il and other issues, Seoul''s foreign ministry said Thursday. The agreement was reached at the three-way talks of their senior diplomats in Washington this week, aimed at coordinating their next steps after the Dec. 17 death of Kim, which thrust his third son and chosen heir, Kim Jong-un, into leadership, South Korea''s news agecny (Yonhap) reported. "The Republic of Korea, the U.S. and Japan have agreed to hold trilateral talks of their foreign ministers at a time of mutual convenience," ministry spokesman Cho Byung-jae told reporters, referring to South Korea by its official name. After this week''s meeting in Washington, the U.S. State Department said in a statement that the three nations "agreed that a path is open to North Korea toward the resumption of talks and improved relations with the United States, Japan and the Republic of Korea through dialogue." Lim Sung-nam, the chief South Korean envoy to the six-party talks on North Korea''s nuclear weapons program, held the talks with his Japanese counterpart Shinsuke Sugiyama and Kurt Campbell, Washington''s top diplomat on Asia. The six-party talks, which involve North Korea, South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States, have been dormant since late 2008, but efforts to get North Korea back to the negotiating table gained some momentum last year. The death of Kim put a brake on the diplomatic efforts to revive the six-party talks and it remains unclear whether the North''s new leadership is willing to hold talks with the outside world.