Senior officials from China, the Democratic People's Republic of
Korea (DPRK), the United States, the Republic of Korea (ROK),
Russia and Japan arrived in Shenyang on Wednesday for a working
group meeting on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
US top negotiator Christopher Hill (R)
speaks to journalists with Chun Yung-woo (R2), top negotiator of
the Republic of Korea (ROK), during a press briefing in Shenyang,
capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province, August 15,
2007.
The two-day meeting to be started Thursday afternoon will focus
on measures to facilitate the denuclearization process, according
to China's Foreign Ministry.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, who is also chief
Chinese envoy to the six-party talks, arrived early on
Wednesday.
Top ROK negotiator Chun Yung-woo told reporters at the airport
on Wednesday morning the Shenyang meeting would mainly focus on
specific issues of the declaration of the DPRK's nuclear
programs.
The main goal of the meeting was to set deadlines for the
disablement of the DPRK's nuclear facilities and the declaration of
its nuclear programs, Chun was quoted as saying.
A series of bilateral talks among the six nations will be
launched since Wednesday. Chun was expected to meet with top US
negotiator Christopher Hill later on Wednesday, sources said.
Ri Gun, who heads the DPRK delegation, arrived on Wednesday
afternoon.
Ri, also director of the DPRK Foreign Ministry North America
Bureau, seemed optimistic about the meeting, as he was reported
assaying it had "good prospects". DPRK chief negotiator Kim
Kye-gwan, who met with his Chinese and US counterparts earlier this
week, will be absent from the meeting.
The Japanese delegation headed by ambassador in charge of the
Korean Peninsula nuclear issue Akio Suda and the Russian delegation
headed by ambassador-at-large Grigory Berdennikov also arrived on
Wednesday afternoon.
The Shenyang meeting, one of the five meetings of working groups
under the six-party talks, is also part of the efforts to pave the
way for the second session of the sixth round of talks in early
September and a ministerial meeting afterwards.
The chief delegates to the six-party talks agreed in their last
meeting in July to hold meetings of the five working groups in
August. In early August, a working group meeting on economy and
energy cooperation was held at the truce village of Panmunjom on
the Korean Peninsula.
The first meeting of the denuclearization working group was held
in Beijing on March 17 and 18 ahead of the sixth round of
talks.??
(Xinhua News Agency August 16, 2007)
