Delegation heads from Japan and the Democratic People's Republic
of Korea (DPRK) made contacts and had an exchange of views on the
nuclear issue and bilateral issues, said a member of the Japanese
delegation to the six-party talks in Beijing Wednesday.?
The official said at the press conference that Mitoji Yabunaka,
head of the Japanese delegation and director-general of the Asian
and Oceanian Affairs Bureau of the Japanese Foreign Ministry,
contacted and had a discussion with Kim Kye-gwan, head of the DPRK
delegation and deputy foreign minister of the DPRK, at the
reception held by Wang Yi, head of the Chinese delegation head and
Chinese vice foreign minister.
The two sides discussed on bilateral contacts to be made during
the third round of six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear
issue, he said.
He said the third round of six-party talks entered into a phase
of discussing substantial issues after the opening ceremony on
Wednesday afternoon. In the plenary session, the delegations from
the DPRK, the United States and the Republic of Korea (ROK) gave an
account of their opinions and proposals, with some delegations
setting forth specific relevant measures of freezing the nuclear
programs.
The delegations from Japan, China and Russia are expected to put
forward their proposals on the second day of this round of
six-party talks on June 24, he added.
He said the stance of Japan, the United States and the ROK
remained basically unchanged, and they still stood for achieving
the complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement (CVID)
through six-party talks, and then building a nuclear weapon-free
Korean Peninsula.
The official reiterated that Japan will consider providing the
DPRK with such humanitarian aid as food, but no economic aid before
the settlement of the abduction issue and the nuclear issue and the
normalization of bilateral relations between Japan and the
DPRK.
(Xinhua News Agency June 24, 2004)