6-party talks to resume today

Negotiators for the six-nation talks on the nuclear program of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) arrived in Beijing yesterday to prepare for the meetings.

The nuclear envoy of the Republic of Korea (ROK) expressed pessimism yesterday. Kim Sook, who leads the ROK delegation, was to meet his US and Japanese counterparts later yesterday to lay the groundwork for the latest round of talks scheduled to start today.

The DPRK, which conducted a nuclear test in 2006, agreed last year to disable its nuclear reactor in exchange for aid. But it recently denied having agreed to allow inspectors to take samples from its nuclear complex to verify past nuclear activities.