S Korea to hold multilateral talks over North's n-programme

Representatives of South Korea, China, the US and Japan in six-party talks to dismantle North Korea's nuclear programme will meet this week to discuss Pyongyang's fourth nuclear test, Seoul's foreign ministry said Monday.

Hwang Joon-Kook, who represents South Korea at the aid-for-disarmament talks, will hold a meeting with his US and Japanese counterparts on Wednesday in Seoul, Xinhua news agency reported.

During the meeting, the diplomats will make an in-depth discussion on bilateral and multilateral countermeasures against what North Korea claimed was its fourth test of a "hydrogen bomb" last Wednesday, including comprehensive and strong resolutions from the UN Security Council.

Hwang will visit China on Thursday to meet Wu Dawei, China's special representative for the Korean Peninsula affairs, and discuss countermeasures.

Schedules for the meeting between Hwang and his Russian counterpart are under coordination between the two sides, the ministry said.

The six-party talks involve South and North Korea, China, the US, Japan and Russia.

The ministry said that right after Pyongyang's nuclear test, Hwang made emergency phone calls with his six-party-talks counterparts, noting that Seoul will make efforts to bring concerted response of the international society via such series of consultations.