Talks on North Korea Nuclear Program End
Posted on: Saturday, 28 February 2004, 06:00 CST
After four days, a meeting of six nations discussing the dispute over North Korea's nuclear program adjourned Saturday with no immediate word on whether any progress was made toward resolving the standoff.
Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said the participants had agreed to set up working groups to discuss how to go forward.
The conference ended more than three hours after its originally scheduled closing amid reports that the North was demanding last-minute revisions to a joint statement.
"Some people think that not enough progress was made," Li said. "But the speed of these negotiations is not very fast. ... The will of the participants is the most important thing, and the will of these participants is to seek peace."
He added: "Spring is a season of promise."
Five nations - South Korea, the United States, China, Russia and Japan - were seated for several minutes waiting before the North Korean delegation strode in. Its chief delegate, Kim Kye Gwan, was smiling broadly.
Kyodo News, a Japanese news agency, reported that North Korea had urged a "last-minute revision" to a joint statement by all six countries working to resolve the dispute over its nuclear program. It said China was working to "persuade North Korea" to accept the statement.
South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported from Beijing that the North was insisting on "including a certain clause in a joint press statement." It cited an unidentified diplomatic source.
The U.S. Embassy in Beijing had no immediate comment, and there was no immediate word from North Korea.
The countries - the Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia - were trying for the second time in Beijing to resolve a 16-month dispute between Washington and Pyongyang. The United States says the North must end its nuclear program; the North wants aid and security guarantees.
The parties met since Wednesday in the Chinese capital. They convened in August in a meeting that produced some discord but no substantive result.
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