The second day of six-party talks aimed at denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula ended on Wednesday with no real sign of any narrowing of differences.
China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the United States, the Republic of Korea (ROK), Russia and Japan, held a plenary session in the morning, followed by a series of bilateral meetings.
No result was achieved in the six-party talks on Wednesday, the second day of the event, said Russian deputy foreign minister and delegation head, Alexander Alexeyev.
"There are still substantial and even conceptual differences between the DPRK and the US," Alexeyev was quoted by Interfax, a news and information service, as saying.
A senior US official, who declined to be named, commenting on bilateral meetings with the DPRK, said: "One of the issues talked about was the issue of highly enriched uranium. We did not achieve an agreement with them. But we did agree to keep talking about that."
The US official added that there are still fundamental differences among the parties.
Top DPRK negotiator, Kim Kye-gwan, has reportedly said his country will never dismantle its nuclear program unless it gets full US diplomatic recognition.
Kim has also demanded the removal of a US nuclear umbrella for South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, the ROK news agency Yonhap reported.
"Our goal is to get rid of US nuclear threats to us and make the Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons," Kim said. "It is necessary that the US promises to end its hostility and ensures a peaceful coexistence with our country legally and with a system."
The US official said the US and the DPRK will hold another one-on-one meeting on Thursday, which Alexeyev said might influence the result of the six-party talks to a large extent.
Alexeyev added that all six parties remain "cautiously optimistic" about the current round of the talks.
The South Korean delegation proposed a "two pillars" resolution to the nuclear issue.
An official with the ROK delegation, who declined to be named, said the proposal was made Song Min-soon, head of the ROK delegation and deputy foreign minister of the nation, in a keynote speech when addressing the plenary meeting in the morning.
Song was quoted as saying that this round of talks should result in a common document such as "a common declaration".
The "two pillars," which should be included in the common document, refer to the promise on the DPRK to give up its nuclear program and the promise of the other parties to normalize their relations with the DPRK, provide a security guarantee and economic cooperation.
The ROK delegation said the common document should highlight the "words for words and actions for actions" principle.
Japanese delegation head Sasae Kenichiro said: "As for the DPRK's promise to scrap its nuclear programs, we will pledge to provide a 'security guarantee' for the nation. With regard to energy aid, we appreciate the 'important proposal' (to provide 2 million kwh of electricity to the DPRK) raised by the government of the ROK."
(Xinhua News Agency July 28, 2005)
