SKorea, Japan say no aid until NKorea disarms

Impoverished North Korea should be given no aid unless it abandons the pursuit of nuclear weapons, the leaders of South Korea and Japan said Friday, forging a united stance before traveling to China for talks on how to get Pyongyang back to the negotiating table.

The flurry of diplomacy comes days after North Korean leader Kim Jong Il told Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao that his country is ready to rejoin the six-nation nuclear disarmament talks, depending on progress in its negotiations with the U.S.

North Korea is pushing to send its deputy nuclear envoy Ri Gun to the United States later this month for a private security forum, a South Korean diplomat said. He asked not to be identified because the forum's organizers have not announced the details of the session.

The planned trip raises speculation that Ri could meet with U.S. officials to lay the groundwork for possible direct talks with Washington. The U.S. has said that a one-on-one meeting should be part of the broader negotiations that also involve South Korea, Japan, China and Russia.

Despite the North's willingness to talk, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama firmly agreed that no aid should be offered to Pyongyang unless the communist regime takes concrete steps to dismantle its nuclear program.

"We should not resume any economic assistance unless North Korea shows commitment and takes concrete steps" toward nuclear abandonment, Hatoyama told a joint news conference with Lee after summit talks in Seoul.

Their stance emphasizes the skepticism Seoul and Tokyo share about the North, which is accused of raising tensions and then agreeing to dialogue and disarmament, only to backtrack after reaping the economic and political benefits of its promises.

Lee said he believes North Korea will return to international nuclear talks after Pyongyang holds direct negotiations with Washington. He reiterated the need for a "fundamental and comprehensive solution" to the nuclear impasse to ensure that past negotiating patterns "will not be repeated."

Hatoyama said Lee's proposal to offer a one-time "grand bargain" of aid and concessions in exchange for denuclearization - rather than the step-by-step process pursued over the past six years - is "completely correct."

Koh Yu-hwan, a professor at Seoul's Dongguk University, said the North seems unlikely to care about the united stance by Seoul and Tokyo as Pyongyang is seeking to strike a deal with the U.S.

Both Lee and Hatoyama arrived in Beijing later in the day for Saturday's three-way summit with Chinese Premier Wen, who is expected to brief them on the outcome of his recent talks with the North Korean leader.

Earlier, Japanese Foreign Ministry Press Secretary Kazuo Kodama told reporters in Seoul that Tokyo will keep enforcing U.N. sanctions against North Korea while leaving the door open for discussion, saying an "approach of pressure and dialogue" is the best way to deal with Pyongyang.

North Korea quit the six-nation talks after being condemned for conducting a rocket test in April and a nuclear test in May. It said at the time it would never return to the disarmament-for-aid talks.

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Associated Press writers Kelly Olsen, Jae-soon Chang in Seoul and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.