The full session of the Six-Party Talks on ending Pyongyang's nuclear program will resume on Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said on Friday.

 

The four-day discussion will be the second phase of the sixth round of the nuclear talks, which started in March after February's landmark deal.

 

Under the agreement by Beijing, Washington, Pyongyang, Seoul, Moscow and Tokyo, Pyongyang is committed to disabling all of its nuclear facilities and to provide a declaration of its nuclear program in exchange for energy assistance and political concessions.

 

Pyongyang shut down its main nuclear reactor at Yongbyon in July and nuclear envoys will meet next week to set out a program for proceeding with this.

 

It is reported nuclear experts from China, the United States and Russia visited Pyongyang's nuclear facilities last week, discussed the technical details of disabling them and agreed with Pyongyang on how to continue the work.

 

Earlier reports also said Pyongyang wants to delay the meeting because it is busy preparing for an October summit between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) leader Kim Jong-il and Roh Moo-hyun, president of the Republic of Korea.

 

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said on Tuesday that China's heavy oil assistance to the DPRK is under way.

 

The first shipment of 50,000 tons arrived in the country's Nampo port last Sunday as part of an international effort to keep nuclear negotiations on track.

 

US President George W. Bush also said this month that Washington would be willing to consider a peace treaty with Pyongyang if it gave up its nuclear weapons program, adding he would offer a new security arrangement for the Korean peninsula.

 

(China Daily September 22, 2007)