Six parties convened in China for the third round of six-party
talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue are all in a serious,
pragmatic, positive and looking-forward spirit and have shown the
strong political will to resolve the issue.??
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue gave these
remarks in Beijing at a regular conference Thursday in Beijing. "In
this sense, the talks have made achievements already," she
said.
Zhang said the six-party talks would focus on two key aspects,
one of which is how to achieve a nuclear weapon-free status on the
Korean Peninsula, including the extent and method of the nuclear
program dismantlement and how to solve the concerns of relevant
parties.
The other aspect is how to make the first step of the
denuclearization process, which includes the freezing of the
nuclear program, and what corresponding approaches the relevant
parties should take, Zhang added.
According to Zhang, during the second plenary session of the
talks, China, Japan and Russia raised their own proposals and ideas
and discussed the detailed plans with other participants including
the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the United States
and the Republic of Korea (ROK).
Wang Yi, head of the Chinese delegation and vice foreign
minister, enunciated China's principled proposition on the Korean
nuclear issue and its idea on how to kick off the first stage of
action.
The third round of six-party talks has had a sound and
relatively stable start, Wang said, as all sides have reaffirmed
the existing important consensus, "which has become the basis for
us to move forward."
"All sides raised detailed plans or proposals in the talks,
which indicated the political intention of pushing the talks toward
progress," noted Wang. "All sides treated other counterparts' plans
conscientiously and in a spirit of looking forward, which embodied
mutual respect and equal consultation."
China is very glad that the participating parties set forth
proposals with substantial content, Zhang said, citing this itself
as the progress.
However, she acknowledged that the Korean peninsula nuclear
issue concerns numerous aspects and is very complicated, warning
that the differences and conflicts may stand out as the discussions
on substantial topics further proceed and the parties should get
themselves prepared psychologically.
The relevant parties have expressed their welcome to the
proposals, but it is still not the time to predict what final
outcome the third-round talks could bear, Zhang said.
"Will there be a final agreement? Or what kind of document will
the participating parties sign at the end of the talks? It's still
very hard to predict now," the spokeswoman said.
(Xinhua News Agency June 25, 2004)