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Summary
Leaders of China, Japan and South Korea began talks Saturday in Beijing amid signs that pressure on North Korea to rejoin nuclear disarmament negotiations may be yielding results. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was due to brief his Japanese and South Korean counterparts on a recent meeting in Pyongyang where North Korean leader Kim Jong Il told Wen his country may end its boycott of the talks, depending on its negotiations with Washington. Japanese officials said late Friday that the US had indicated it might meet with the North and that Pyongyang appears increasingly willing to return to the talks. On Friday, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said they agreed the North should not be given aid until it begins to dismantle its nuclear weapons programme. Hatoyama has backed a proposal by Lee 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. But winning China's overt support for such an approach may be difficult given Beijing's longtime support for its impoverished ally.
