A U.S.-based Chinese news service says Japan is emerging as a new stumbling block to the resumption of the six-party nuclear talks at a time when North Korea is apparently willing to return to the negotiating table.

Duowei News reported that South Korea, the U.S., China and Russia are pessimistic about Japan’s participation in the multilateral nuclear dialogue framework.

Duowei said that Tokyo is becoming an obstacle to the reopening of the six-way nuclear talks, due to its territorial claims and historical distortions, and Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto’s inflammatory remarks about Japan’s wartime sex slavery.