Related stories

The First Step for New Business Thinking About Business in New Years Alexandre Fauvet talks about Business Beijing Rene S. Schmitt talks about Business Beijing Tao Jingzhou talks about Business Beijing

Third Round Six-party Talks Forges New Steps

The third round of six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue forged new steps for reaching new consensus based on the consolidation of the previous achievements and for reaching the goal of denuclearization, reported Xinhua News Agency on June 26, 2004.

"All the relevant parties offered proposals and plans for the solution to the nuclear issue," said Wang Yi, Chinese vice-foreign minister and the Chinese delegation head to the talks.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) expressed its willingness to give up all nuclear weapons-related programmes in a transparent way and stressed that a freeze of its nuclear programmes was a first step toward the abandonment of the nuclear programmes. The DPRK said it would accept inspection, according to Wang. The DPRK also offered specific plans for launching a freeze programme for the first time.

The United States reiterated it would not pursue a hostile policy toward the DPRK and offered, for the first time, comprehensive proposals for resolving the nuclear issue in an all- round way, he said.

The Republic of Korea (ROK) put forward specific plans on the first steps for abandoning the nuclear programmes, also for the first time, Wang said.

Likewise, Japan for the first time Japan said it would provide energy aid to the DPRK with certain conditions based on a freeze of the nuclear programmes.

Both China and Russia offered important plans and proposals for pressing ahead with the peaceful talks and overcoming the difficulties, Wang said.

"The proposals and plans are the results achieved from the efforts of all relevant parties since the talks started a year ago, and they also reflect the positive political will of all parties to push forward the peaceful talks," he said.