From Asahi:
Former Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs for the US Dept. of State James A. Kelly, who acted as head representative of the US for the 6-Party talks dealing with the North Korean nuclear issue, revealed that the creation of the 6-Party Talks was Japan’s idea. When then-Secretary of State Colin Powell visited Japan, China, and Korea in 2003, the Japanese government presented the structure of the talks to him. He then proceeded to China, where he persuaded then-Premier Jiang Zemin to go along, succeeding in forcing North Korea, who had wanted a bilateral solution between NK and the US, to deal with the issue multilaterally.
According to an interview with Kelly from his residence in Hawaii, in 2003, the year in which North Korea worsened the nuclear problem by restarting the nuclear facility at Yong Byong, the US was considering multilateral talks that included the 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council, Japan, South Korea, the EU, Australia and others using multiple combinations.
The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) presented the idea of either 5-party talks including North and South Korea as well as the US, Japan, and China, or 6-party talks including Russia as well, when Powell visited Japan, South Korea, and China on the event of South Korean President Roh Mu Hyun’s inauguration in February of the same year. The proposal was based on the frustrating experience of being left out of the “4-party talks” between the US, China, and North and South Korea.
“Powell presented the idea as coming from the US, since he thought it would be easier for the Chinese to agree than if he said it was Japan’s idea,” Kelly explained. China was initially hesitant, saying, “The nuclear problem is between the US and North Korea,” but America was insistent. After a three-party talk in April, the first six-party talks started in Beijing in August 2003.
Kelly said, “The six-party talks are the best framework to induce North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons. North Korea isn’t responding because it doesn’t like to feel ganged up on 5 to 1.” Expressing his desire to see the talks reopened, Kelly added, “The six-party talks aren’t dead.”