The six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue are
moving in the "correct" direction despite difficulties that have
yet to be settled on the way forward, the chief Chinese delegate
said Thursday.
Thanks to joint efforts, "we are faced with a new season of
harvest (for the six-nation talks)," Wu Dawei, who is also
vice-foreign minister, said at the opening of the latest session of
the multilateral talks in Beijing.
"This meeting is an important one in the Six-Party Talks
process. Its main task is to discuss and determine the action plan
for the next stage, " he said.
Negotiators at the talks, which groups host China, the United
States, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the
Republic of Korea (ROK), Russia and Japan, are trying to work out a
roadmap for specific measures to disable the DPRK's nuclear
facilities.
Under an agreement reached by the six countries on February 13,
the DPRK agreed to declare all its nuclear programs and shut down
its nuclear facilities in exchange for 1 million tons of heavy fuel
oil, or the monetary equivalent in other aid and assistance. It
shut down and sealed its Yongbyon reactor in July.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said yesterday that
China's shipment of 50,000 tons of oil arrived in the DPRK
recently. The ROK provided the first batch of 50,000 tons.
The US is expected to unveil a detailed plan concerning the
denuclearization process today, top US negotiator Christopher Hill
said last night.
"We will circulate a joint statement. The joint statement is
going to specify that the disablement and declaration have to be
done by the year-end," US Assistant Secretary of State Hill told
reporters upon returning to his hotel after a plenary session of
the talks.
"It (the joint statement) will be more specific in terms of
timing. Also it has to lay out how the fuel oil is provided, so it
would be more detailed," Hill said.
"Basically, we have agreed on most of the disablement measures,
and we have made some proposals to the additional measures," Hill
said.
Diplomats have suggested that differences still need to be
ironed out for the denuclearization process to make progress.
Chun Yung-woo, the chief ROK delegate, said there were still
some differences between what the DPRK was intending to do on
disablement and what the other countries wanted done.
"Still, the DPRK has a strong resolve to obtain results from
this Six-Party Talks, and other countries also want to obtain
results. So I believe it's not impossible to overcome that
difference," Chun told reporters.
Japanese envoy Kenichiro Sasae described yesterday's talks as "a
polite exchange where we discussed some ideas".
The negotiators will hear a summary of results from each of the
five working group meetings that took place prior to this phase of
the talks, which are expected to run until Sunday.
Chinese observers have said a roadmap on the declaration and
disablement of nuclear facilities as well as specific actions on
providing economic aid is likely at the end of this session based
on the positive signs that have been sent out by related
parties.
"The general development of the talks is active. The working
group meetings prior to the talks in the past weeks as well as the
contacts between the US and the DPRK and the US and the ROK
demonstrate positive signs," said Liu Jiangyong, a professor of
international relations at Tsinghua University.
(China Daily September 28, 2007)
