Six-party talks to resume today

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(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-12-08 07:33

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

The discussions this week are expected to focus on how to verify Pyongyang's accounting of the program, but negotiators have said they expect the process to be difficult.

"I am not optimistic at all," Kim said, according to the ROK's Yonhap news agency. On Saturday, Kim met top US nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill in Seoul after Hill held two days of preliminary talks with his DPRK counterpart in Singapore.

"As far as I know, there was no explicit outcome or new compromise at the Singapore meeting," Kim said, without providing details.

Hill has said he expects the talks to be difficult and indicated the meetings will focus on working out a detailed plan for verifying the DPRK's nuclear programs.

"We need a situation where when we begin the verification there are no surprises," Hill told reporters in Seoul on Saturday.

The US, the ROK and Japanese nuclear negotiators met yesterday for discussions.

The officials discussed Hill's meetings on Thursday and Friday with his DPRK counterpart in Singapore, Japan's Akitaka Saiki told reporters.

"After hearing about what was discussed between the US and North Korea (DPRK), it appears a big gap still remains," Saiki said. "Regarding how to narrow the gap, it's up to each party's efforts from tomorrow. I think negotiations are going to be tough."

The DPRK vowed on Saturday to ignore Japan at the talks, citing Tokyo's refusal to send aid to the DPRK as part of the disarmament agreement. The DPRK has issued similar warnings in the past, but Tokyo has continued to attend the negotiations that began in 2003.

Under the agreement, The DPRK would disable its nuclear reactor in exchange for 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil or equivalent aid, half of which has been delivered. Japan has refused to join four other countries - China, Russia, the ROK and the United States - in providing the aid until the DPRK addresses the kidnapping of more than a dozen Japanese in the 1970s and 80s.