North Korea has suggested that Japan be removed from long-running six-party talks aimed at its nuclear disarmament.

A commentary in a North Korean newspaper said Japan kept creating trouble and had wrecked the process.
Japan has refused to grant North Korea the economic and energy aid it seeks as part of a negotiated agreement.
Tokyo says Pyongyang has failed to properly investigate the fate of Japanese citizens it abducted in the 1970s and 1980s.
South Korea has said that an outside donor may need to be brought in to provide Japan's share of aid.
However, the U.S. remained optimistic that the situation could be resolved.
""I think there's a high degree of confidence among the five that we will meet our obligations,"" State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
North Korea tested an atomic bomb in 2006, but six-nation talks between North and South Korea, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia led to an agreement for it to halt all nuclear activity.
Under the 2007 deal, North Korea was to receive one million tons of energy aid from the five countries in return for disabling its nuclear plants.
Pyongyang began dismantling its main nuclear complex last November.
It also blew up the main cooling tower at Yongbyon in a symbolic gesture of its commitment to the process.
A row which threatened to derail the accord was narrowly averted last week when the U.S. announced it was removing Pyongyang from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, after the two countries agreed on a series of measures to verify the North's nuclear program.
Correspondents say Pyongyang wanted to be removed from the list in order to receive international aid and loans, and facilitate its diplomatic rehabilitation, but that Japan will feel North Korea has been rewarded too soon. (Source: BBC)