• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

China says 6-way N.Korea talks to resume, progress

Posted on: Thursday, 25 August 2005, 02:33 CDT

By Elaine Lies

TOKYO (Reuters) - Six-party talks aimed at dismantling North Korea's nuclear weapons program may resume on September 2 and are likely to make more progress than the previous round, China's top envoy to the forum was quoted as saying on Thursday.

"The talks could resume from September 2," visiting Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei was quoted by Mizuho Fukushima, leader of Japan's Social Democratic Party, as telling her in a meeting.

Fukushima told Reuters that Wu also said: "I think there will be more progress than before."

Wu is to visit Pyongyang soon, Fukushima said without elaborating, adding that Wu had given her no further details about the talks, including whether the United States and North Korea had agreed to start the talks on September 2.

"He said the various countries are making efforts regarding the talks, and so for that reason more progress is likely than in previous rounds," Fukushima said.

Following a gap of more than a year, the parties -- the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, China and Russia -- met in Beijing for nearly two weeks before breaking off earlier this month with a decision to reconvene during the week of August 29.

A spokesman for the South Korean Foreign Ministry said he anticipated that the talks would begin next week, likely in the second half of the week, but that no firm date had been set.

A North Korean diplomatic source in Beijing, however, was quoted by Interfax as saying the talks are unlikely to resume next week.

"In our opinion, there is little chance that the fourth round of the six-way talks could be resumed next week," the unnamed source said.

Wu met Japanese officials on Wednesday but had only said the talks would likely resume next week as planned, stopping short of giving a specific date.

"All I can say for now is that we are still discussing the opening of the meeting to be held sometime in the week of August 29 ... No specific date has been set at the moment," Tomohiko Taniguchi, deputy press secretary at Japan's Foreign Ministry, told a news conference.

There has been a flurry of diplomatic activity ahead of the planned resumption of talks, including contacts between U.S. and North Korean officials, in a bid to avoid another breakdown.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon discussed the six-party talks on Tuesday in Washington, and Japan's representative to the forum flies to the United States on Thursday for a meeting with his U.S. counterpart.

On Wednesday, a senior South Korean official said he was optimistic about prospects for a deal by which the North would abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions, because Pyongyang has been presented with Washington's best-ever offer.

"There has never been a more positive signal in 50 years than what the United States has offered the North," South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Lee Tae-sik told a forum in Seoul.

"The United States has promised normalization of relations in return for North Korea giving up all its nuclear programs. I think there will be some good result soon," he said.

In a sign that the U.S. position was softening ahead of the planned resumption of talks, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the top U.S. negotiator, said on Tuesday the issue of the North having a civilian nuclear plan was a "theoretical, downstream" issue that would not break a deal.

North Korea's insistence on the right to have a civilian nuclear program was the key sticking point in the last round of talks, at which the parties failed to agree to a joint statement.

U.S. officials have been skeptical about allowing North Korea to pursue a nuclear program for energy production out of concern that it might be used for military purposes.

Source: REUTERS

More News in this Category