South Korea's Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon, the next UN secretary general, was to hold talks with his Japanese counterpart Taro Aso here Sunday, with the focus on the North Korean nuclear crisis.
The two ministers were scheduled to meet over a late working dinner after Ban's arrival for a two-day visit, Japanese officials said. Aside from North Korea, UN reforms were expected to figure prominently on the agenda.
Ban, who will take up the top UN post on January 1, is also due to pay a courtesy call on Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday, the Japanese foreign ministry said.
Since being named in October, the secretary general-designate has travelled to Russia, France and China -- all veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council.
North Korea, which carried out an atom bomb test last month and test-fired seven missiles in July, agreed last week to return to the six-nation talks aimed at dismantling its nuclear arms programs.
Pyongyang walked out of the talks a year ago in protest at unilateral US sanctions aimed at blocking its access to the international banking system.
The US says some of the North Korean funds in a Macau bank came from counterfeiting and other illicit activities.
Pyongyang on Wednesday said it would return to the six-party talks on the condition that the issue of lifting the financial sanctions is discussed and settled. North and South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States are part of the forum.
Aso and Ban were expected to reaffirm bilateral co-operation on the implementation of UN sanctions imposed after North Korea's nuclear test and prepare for the resumption of the six-way talks, officials said.
The Japanese foreign minister was also expected to call for Ban's help in resolving the issue of North Korea's abductions of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s, the officials said.
But on Saturday, North Korea said that Japan should not attend the six-party talks after Japanese officials reportedly said Tokyo would not recognise the communist country as a nuclear-armed state.
The Japanese authorities have "clearly proved themselves that they are political imbeciles incapable of judging the trend of the situation and their deplorable position," a North Korean foreign ministry official said.
At the six-way talks, Japan has persistently raised the abduction issue, angering North Korea and irritating China, South Korea and Russia.
But Washington has supported Tokyo's drive to force Pyongyang to come clean on the abductions.
North Korea admitted in 2002 that it had abducted 13 Japanese nationals to use them for spy training in Japanese language and culture. Five survivors were later returned. Without showing convincing evidence, Pyongyang claimed the eight others were dead, but Japan suspected they were still alive and kept under wraps as they might know secrets about the reclusive communist state.