SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – Negotiators from the United States, Japan and South Korea on Saturday tried to hammer out a unified stance on how to lure North Korea back to nuclear disarmament talks.

Hopes for resuming the stalled talks were dealt a setback on Feb. 10 when North Korea announced it had nuclear weapons and was boycotting the negotiations aimed at ending its nuclear programs.

However, the communist state’s leader, Kim Jong Il, told a visiting Chinese envoy on Monday that his government would return to the negotiating table if certain conditions are met.

On Friday, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, in a major policy speech, urged calm following North Korea’s recent claim that it has nuclear weapons, and he said it will take both flexibility and a principled stand to persuade the communist nation to abandon its atomic weapons program.

“Although an unexpected development occurred, it doesn’t greatly change the fundamental structure” of the nuclear standoff, Roh said in a speech marking the second anniversary of his inauguration.

He was referring to North Korea’s Feb. 10 announcement that it has nuclear bombs and will boycott six-nation nuclear disarmament talks. The claim about having nuclear weapons could not be verified independently.

“We will be flexible but won’t lose our principled stance,” Roh said.

Saturday’s meeting in Seoul, the first of its kind since the North’s announcement, sought to narrow differences between the United States, Japan and South Korea on how to handle North Korea – an isolated country under totalitarian rule.

The meeting brought together South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-soon; Kenichiro Sasae, director-general of the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Asia-Oceania bureau; and Christopher Hill, the U.S. ambassador to Seoul who has been named Washington’s top negotiator in the North Korean nuclear dispute.

North Korea is believed to be seeking concessions in return for returning to the six-talks, which also include Russia and China.

The United States, however, says no rewards should be given just for coming to the negotiating table.

South Korea and China have urged both the United States and North Korea to be more flexible in the two-year-old nuclear standoff.

Japan’s Kyodo News Agency, citing multiple anonymous sources, also reported that China – the North’s last major ally – has asked Japan to convince the United States to be more flexible. The reported request came after a visit to North Korea early this week by a senior Chinese Communist Party leader, Wang Jiarui.

But, Hill has insisted on “coordinated” actions, warning that Pyongyang could try to exploit divisions among the participants of the multilateral discussions.

Since 2003, Beijing has hosted three rounds of six-party negotiations, with little progress reported. A fourth round scheduled for last September never took place because North Korea refused to attend, citing what it called a “hostile” U.S. policy.

The United States wants the North to immediately dismantle all nuclear facilities.