U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly on Tuesday shed no light on the timing of a next round of talks on North Korea's nuclear arms program, but said his visit to Tokyo set a "good basis" for talks with China and South Korea.

Asked when a second round of six-way talks on ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program would be held, Kelly told reporters: "I don't know. I still don't know. I am going to go to Beijing and do some more work."

Kelly, in Tokyo on a three-day visit, is to travel to Beijing later on Tuesday before flying to Seoul on Wednesday for a three-day stay.

South Korean National Security Adviser Ra Jong-yil said on Monday that although nothing had yet been decided, the next round of six-country talks was likely to be held on December 17-18.

The United States, the two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia held an inconclusive first round of talks in Beijing in August in an effort to end the crisis over Pyongyang's nuclear program.

Earlier on Tuesday, Kelly met Japanese Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi.

Japanese officials said Kelly and Kawaguchi discussed a written security guarantee for North Korea in exchange for a "verifiable and irreversible" end to its nuclear weapons program. The officials refused to elaborate.

The officials quoted Kelly as telling Kawaguchi that his talks with Japanese officials laid a "good basis for talking to China and ROK (South Korea)."

Ishiba told Kelly that both dialogue and pressure should be used in dealing with North Korea, they said.

"A diplomatic and peaceful solution does not mean accepting everything North Korea says," Ishiba told reporters after meeting Kelly. "If (North Korea) is trying to have its way by blackmail, with nuclear weapons, weapons of mass destruction or missiles, we cannot accept that and such methods should not be tolerated."

Pyongyang, reiterating recent remarks, said on Sunday it was "ready to abandon in practice its nuclear program which the U.S. is concerned about at the phase where its hostile policy is fundamentally dropped and its threat to us removed in practice."

A spokesman for North Korea's Foreign Ministry, whose comments were reported by the official KCNA news agency, said North Korea was willing to consider "written assurances of non-aggression" rather than a formal non-aggression treaty with the United States. The U.S. has ruled out such a treaty.

The crisis began in October 2002 when U.S. officials said Pyongyang had privately admitted pursuing a clandestine nuclear weapons program that violated its international agreements.

In an attempt to defuse the crisis, Washington said last month it was willing to give Pyongyang unspecified security assurances in exchange for a verifiable and irreversible end to North Korea's suspected weapons program.

(China Daily November 18, 2003)