Top Japanese nuke envoy visits Seoul for talks

Japan's top nuclear envoy Sugiyama Shinsuke speaks to the media during a news conference at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul January 17, 2013.[Photo/Agencies]

SEOUL - Top Japanese negotiator for six-party denuclearization talks visited Seoul Thursday to discuss coordination of policy toward the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the foreign ministry said in Seoul.

Shinske Sugiyama, director general of the Asian and Affairs Bureau of the Japanese foreign ministry, met with his South Korean counterpart Lim Sung-nam in Seoul and discussed potential sanctions on the DPRK over its Dec 12 rocket launch.

The visit comes a day after Kurt Campbell, assistant US secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific, said the United States is in detailed talks with key players at the UN, including China and Russia, over sanctions on Pyongyang.

Pyongyang has said the launch of its rocket mounted with a satellite was for scientific purposes only, but the United States and its allies have condemned it as a disguised missile test.

The DPRK is already barred by UN resolutions from conducting any kind of missile tests.