ROK, DPRK agree on denuclearization
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-07-24 17:18

The Republic of Korea (ROK) and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) here Sunday reached a consensus on setting up a framework for the denuclearization in the Korean Peninsula, according to a senior ROK diplomat.

Following a 100-minute meeting with his DPRK counterpart Kim Kye-gwan Sunday morning, Song Min-soon, deputy foreign minister and head of the ROK delegation for the upcoming six-party talks, told a press conference that the ROK and DPRK reached consensus on many issues during the meeting, but declined to give more details.

It was the first meeting between the ROK and the DPRK after their arrival in Beijing for the talks, which is scheduled to open on Tuesday.

The ROK and DPRK decided to continue such bilateral talks and cooperate for substantial results in the six-party talks, which involves China, DPRK, the United States, ROK, Russia and Japan, Song said.

The ROK delegation will hold bilateral contact with the other four delegations, according to Song.

The DPRK and ROK delegations arrived here respectively on Friday and Saturday.

The US delegation arrived here Sunday afternoon while Japanese and Russian delegations are expected to arrive Sunday evening and Monday morning respectively.

Upon the arrival of all the five delegations, the Chinese side will host a banquet in honor of them Monday evening at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, the venue for the previous three rounds of six-party talks.

The new round of the talks will begin at 9:00 am Tuesday at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse.

The fourth round of six-party talks, which was originally scheduled to be held last September, has been postponed due to various reasons.

The resumption of the talks has rekindled hope for a breakthrough to the nuclear dismantlement deadlock, local observers said.

The Korean Peninsula nuclear issue broke out in the 1990s. From 2003 to 2004, the six countries held three rounds of talks in Beijing, but no substantial progress was made.

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