S Korea, US, Japan to hold talks on DPRK nuke issue next week

Envoys of South Korea, the United States and Japan will hold talks next week on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s nuclear program, Seoul's foreign ministry said Thursday.

The meeting among special envoys for the long-stalled six-party talks will be held on Jan. 28 in Tokyo, according to the Foreign Ministry.

Among the participants are Hwang Joon-kook, Seoul's special representative for peace and security affairs on the Korean peninsula, and Sung Kim, US special representative for DPRK policy along with Junichi Ihara, chief of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau.

The ministry said the diplomats will have a comprehensive discussion on the nuclear program and overall issues on the DPRK.

The six-party talks which involve China, the United States, Russia, Japan, the DPRK and the South Korea was initiated in Beijing in August 2003 but has been halted since December 2008.