Six-Party Talks resume in Beijing

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-12-09 07:56

Negotiators at the Six-Party Talks should handle the thorny issue of verifying Pyongyang's declaration of its nuclear programs in a "flexible and pragmatic" manner.

Wu Dawei, head of the Chinese delegation at the talks, said this on Monday, when negotiations resumed in Beijing after a five-month suspension.

The talks will focus on three subjects, including a protocol to verify the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK) declaration of its nuclear program.

"We need joint efforts to narrow differences and lay a solid foundation to take the talks into the next phase," Wu said.

The talks offer opportunities but there are uncertainties too, Wu said, calling all parties to adhere to the principle of "word for word, action for action" and "phased implementation".

"First, verification. Second, continuous implementation of the second phase action plan. And third, setting up a peace and security mechanism in northeast Asia," Wu said.

Before the meeting started at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, some envoys said the negotiations would be tough.

"We all know what we're supposed to accomplish here and, like at all other six-party meetings the negotiations would be tough," Chief US envoy Christopher Hill said.

"We're not trying to solve all the problems, but we have several items that we have worked hard to get ready," Hill said.

Kim Sook, the Republic of Korea's envoy, said he did not expect a major achievement.

Pyongyang wants the envoys at the talks to "ensure speedy economic compensation" and "reach a common understanding on verification", a spokesman for the DPRK's Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.

The US and the DPRK have disagreements on the method to verify the declaration of Pyongyang's nuclear program. They failed to agree on the sampling of atomic material in Singapore last week, too.

Under an agreement reached at the Six-Party Talks in February last year, the DPRK agreed to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for diplomatic and economic incentives. But later Pyongyang said it had slowed down the denuclearization process because of sluggish economic compensation.

On Saturday, the DPRK said it would ignore Japan at the talks because it had gone back on its word to send aid. Japan has said it would not resume the aid till progress on the issue of its citizens' abduction was made.

The DPRK has admitted abducting 13 Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s and returned five of them, saying the others are dead. But Japan insists the DPRK is hiding the others and, has abducted more people than it has acknowledged.