CHINA / National
Six-Party Talks set to resume soon
By Le Tian (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-11-01 06:47
Negotiators for the six-party talks over North Korea's nuclear crisis
join hands before the start of a banquet meeting in Beijing, China, in
this Tuesday September 13, 2005 file photo. North Korea agreed to return
to six-party talks on its nuclear program, South Korea's YTN television
reported. [AP / file]
Stalled talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue will resume soon, the
Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.
At China's initiative, heads of delegations to the Six-Party Talks from
China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the United
States had an informal meeting yesterday, the ministry said in a
statement posted on its website.
"The three parties engaged in a candid and in-depth exchange of views on
continuing the Six-Party Talks. The three parties agreed to carry out the
Six-Party Talks in the near future, at a time convenient to the six
parties," it said. Russia, Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) are the
other three sides.
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In Washington, US President George W. Bush welcomed the planned
resumption of the Six-Party Talks.
"I am pleased and I want to thank the Chinese," the president told
reporters at the White House.
The DPRK, which announced on October 9 that it had conducted a successful
nuclear test, has refused to return to the talks since November last year
citing financial sanctions the United States imposed against it.
China is the host of the Six-Party Talks, which began in 2003 and are
aimed at making the peninsula nuclear free.
Late last night, US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, who is
also the chief US negotiator for the Six-Party Talks, told reporters in
Beijing that the talks could be resumed as early as this month, or next,
depending on what is agreed to by all six parties.
The United States expects "substantial progress" from the next round of
talks, Hill said at a press conference following a bilateral meeting with
his DPRK counterpart Kim Gye-gwan, as well as a three-way meeting that
included China.
Hill said the DPRK had made no explicit promises that it would conduct no
further nuclear tests; and added that the United Nations Security Council
resolution on the DPRK remained in force.
The DPRK has set no conditions for returning to the talks, Hill said, but
"wanted our reassurance that we would address the issue of the financial
measures in the six-party process."
He said the United States has agreed to set up of a working group under
the six-nation talks to discuss US financial sanctions.
Chinese observers consider the agreement as one of the first signs of
easing tension since the DPRK's nuclear test, and said the news was
"encouraging."
"This demonstrates China's continued diplomatic efforts have paid off
with the DPRK and the United States set to return to the negotiating
table," said Liu Jiangyong, a senior expert on the Korean nuclear issue
at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
President Hu Jintao sent his special envoy, State Councillor Tang
Jiaxuan, to Washington and Pyongyang to meet Bush and the DPRK leader Kim
Jong-il.
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