Day 1 of sensitive and much-anticipated six-party talks on the Korean nuclear crisis opened with a tough, unified message for North Korea, says a Japanese Foreign Ministry official.

The official, who was present in the room where talks occurred, told reporters that the government of Japan called for "a complete, verifiable, and irreversible" end to all "[nuclear] programs, facilities, and materials." The official says that the four other parties to the talks "in one way or another," outlined the same tough criteria for peace and stability in the Peninsula.

He affirmed that Japan and others told North Korea that no country, China, Russia, the United States, South Korea, and Japan, "is pursuing a hostile policy, or an attempt to change the North Korean regime."

But the official did open the door for some form of collective nondiplomatic action, should North Korea not "immediately" begin addressing concerns of the other five nations.

"If the concerns continue to exist, we may be prepared to figure out how to address those concerns," the Foreign Ministry official stated. He would not say what measures were discussed.

The Japanese position, similar to that of the other four nations, required North Korea not to "develop or transfer" nuclear weapons, to "come into compliance with all international agreements ... including the NPT [Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty]," and to "promptly" dismantle all weapons of mass destruction, including biological and chemical weapons.

"If the five parties are in agreement at the start, that may have some effect," argues Bates Gill, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "Standing shoulder to shoulder is a good thing. But you can only push a desperate and vulnerable regime to the wall so far. At some point, you are going to have to give the North some kind of reassurance. And I'm not sure the Americans are ready for that."

As for Japan's hint at further action should the North continue to develop weapons, Mr. Gill noted this would not play well in Pyongyang. "If the Japanese, or the others,are talking about non-diplomatic means, that can't be reassuring to the North regime," he says.

On the opening day of talks, which were expected to be difficult due to a wide gap between the US and North Korean positions, the Americans spoke for an hour, the North Koreans for 50 minutes, and the other four nations for about 20 minutes apiece.

The atmosphere was described by the Japanese official as congenial. He confirmed that the US delegates did conduct an informal bilateral meeting with the North Koreans, and the atmosphere at that meeting, held at the table, appeared to be "something like what you see when a meeting breaks up at the United Nations, and delegates gather in a lounge."

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