Nuke talks to continue as Powell sees positive results
(Agencies/chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2004-02-27 14:22

A third day of talks over North Korea's nuclear program got under way as Washington put a positive spin on the way discussions are progressing.

With China saying negotiations are at a "pivotal stage", South Korean delegation spokesman said Friday that the six-party talks will continue on Saturday. The ROK spokesman Shin Bong-kil said that the six-party talks will close on Saturday, adding that Friday's third plenary session of the day has concluded.

Friday's session among representatives of China, North Korea, the United States, South Korea, Japan and Russia started around 9.30 am (0130 GMT), Chinese officials said.

In Washington, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said the first two days of talks had been "promising" and were moving in the "right direction."

"Our diplomats are hard at work in Beijing today with the North Koreans, the Chinese and the South Koreans, the Japanese and the Russians. And the results of the first two days' meeting are positive," Powell said at a hearing of the Senate Budget Committee.

"There is a positive attitude. There is a promising attitude that is emerging from those meetings, and hopefully we can move in the right direction there," Powell said.

However, Powell cautioned tough work may lie ahead.

"Diplomacy tends not to be something that happens overnight. You do not see your successes right away," he said.

His comments came after a North Korean official said in a hastily arranged press briefing Thursday that Pyongyang was willing -- under certain conditions -- to completely stop its nuclear weapons program.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said all parties welcomed the DPRK's proposal of a comprehensive stop of nuclear activities, which is a necessary step for dismantling of its nuclear program.

An official of the South Korean Presidential Office was also quoted by Yonhap as saying on Friday that "It is a huge leap for the DPRK and the United States to have put their complete agendas on the table," noting the two sides have maintained hard-line stance toward each other.

Pyongyang's position calls for a simultaneous swap of a freeze of its nuclear activities for a security guarantee and energy aid from the United States, as well as for the removal of the DPRK from the US list of states sponsoring terrorism.

At a separate news briefing, Lee Soo-Hyuck, chief negotiator from SouthKorea, said China and Russia agreed to join the ROK to offer energy aid to the DPRK, in return for freezing of the nuclear weapons program.

However, there is also conflicting signs. In a statement of the North Korea delegation, it condemned the United States for its hard-line stance that Pyongyang should first abandon its nuclear programs before getting any compensations, saying its old foe is blocking progress with "a hostile policy."

There was no confirmation from either the US or Japanese side, neither of which arranged news briefings at press time.

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