Seoul, Washington, Tokyo working together on N.K.

Making official they will not resume talks with North Korea until the country honors previous denuclearization agreements, South Korea, the U.S. and Japan are seeking coordinated measures to tackle the increased military tensions on the divided Korean Peninsula. 

North Korea unleashed a barrage of artillery shells on a civilian-inhabited South Korean island near their tense western sea border a week ago, killing at least four people and ratcheting up military tensions to the highest level in more than two decades. Instead of condemning Pyongyang as most other countries have, China proposed over the weekend that six partners of the stalled talks on North Korea’s denuclearization meet in Beijing next month for an emergency session.

China, reluctant to ruin ties with its unpredictable but diplomatically useful ally North Korea, apparently wants the emergency session to work as a stepping stone in fully resuming the aid-for-denuclearization talks deadlocked since December 2008. 

Foreign ministers of Seoul, Washington and Tokyo will meet in Washington in the first week of December to coordinate their stance toward Pyongyang’s recent provocation as well as Beijing’s proposal, according to the Foreign Ministry here.