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6-party talks open, host China urges flexibility
By Hu Xiao and Qin Jize (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-07-26 06:08
Six-party talks aimed at defusing a three-year-old crisis over North Korea's nuclear ambitions opened in Beijing on Tuesday, one day after Pyongyang and Washington held a rare one-on-one meeting.
Chinese Foreign Ministry Li Zhaoxing urged negotiators to show flexibility and hold a pragmatic attitude to seek "positive" progress in the new round of talks.
A video grab shows Chinese vice foreign minister Wu Dawei declares open the 4th round of six-party talks on the North Korea nuclear issue at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing July 26, 2005. |
Li said at the opening session of the fourth round of the six-party talks that realizing the a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula and maintaining long-term regional peace and stability is in the interests of all parties concerned.
Adhering to the process of peaceful talks is the sole correct choice, he said.
The North Korean envoy to six-nation talks on his country's nuclear program said the central issue was to realize the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and said his delegation was ready to work toward that.
"The fundamental thing is to make real progress in realizing the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan said.
"This requires very firm political will and a strategic decision of the parties concerned that have interests in ending the threat of nuclear war," Kim said to fellow envoys from China, South Korea, the United States, Japan and Russia. "We are fully ready and prepared for that."
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