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Six-party talks on nuclear issue to resume soon

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-06-25 23:03

MOSCOW  -- A Russian diplomat said Wednesday that top negotiators of the six-party talks on the nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula will possibly resume in Beijing soon, Itar-Tass news agency reported.

"It is quite probable that a meeting of heads of delegations at the six-party talks will be held soon. If we get an official invitation from the Chinese partners, who chair the six-party talks, we are willing to attend the meeting," said the anonymous diplomat.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao Tuesday voiced the hope that the six-party talks agreement be implemented comprehensively and effectively, so as to begin the next phase of the nuclear talks, which involve China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the United States, Japan, the South Korea and Russia.

Under an agreement reached at the six-party talks in Beijing in February last year, the DPRK agreed to abandon all nuclear weapons and programs and declare all its nuclear programs and facilities by the end of 2007, in exchange for diplomatic and economic incentives.

Washington expects the DPRK to submit its nuclear declaration to China on June 26, pledging that it will remove the DPRK from a list of state sponsors of terrorism and stop penalizing the country following Pyongyang's declaration.