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Negotiators from the six parties attending the fourth-round Korean Peninsula nuclear talks strived for the drafting of an all-acceptable joint document yesterday, as the talks entered the sixth day.
Deputy heads of delegation from the six parties discussed for five hours on the draft document, which was proposed by the Chinese delegation on Saturday based on an integration of stances of all parties.
"The Chinese text represents a good basis for future negotiations and future discussions," said US chief delegate Christopher Hill, acknowledging that it is also "a good basis for final document and final agreement."
V. Yermolov, deputy head of the Russian delegation, was quoted as saying that all the delegations had made revisions to the draft document according to their own stances, and had returned the revised copies to the Chinese delegation on Sunday.
Negotiators will work on a final revision of the draft joint document, he said.
As differences still remain between North Korea and the US on the definition of denuclearization and conditions of nuclear dismantlement, it is largely unforeseeable what might be written into the draft document.
"The draft joint document the deputy heads of delegation discussed today was not long. However, the six sides wanted it to include all core contents of the talks that have been so far consulted," South Korea's chief negotiator Song Min-soon said yesterday.
South Korea had proposed earlier that if the North agreed to give up its nuclear program, it would be ready to provide 2 million kilowatt of electricity to North Korea by building a cross inter-Korean border power line.
"This proposal could become the key to resolving the nuclear issue," said Song at the opening ceremony of the talks on Tuesday. The proposal was later described by Song as one important "pillar" in solving the nuclear issue.
South Korea hoped the North would give up its nuclear program, and the other countries concerned would make definite promise to realize the normalization of bilateral relations with North Korea and provide security guarantee to it, Song said.
Song added that as the best frame of reference, the denuclearization declaration of the Korean Peninsula that came into being in 1992 would be used in a flexible manner for the settlement of the nuclear issue.
Under the 1992 Korean Peninsula denuclearization declaration, South and North Korea pledged not to test, produce, store, deploy or use nuclear weapons.
According to some media speculation here, the joint document will also cover topics like the North's security concern, the normalization of diplomatic relations between the US, Japan and North Korea, and economic cooperation between the parties concerned.
While the current round of talks seems to be approaching its end, no one can predict the exact date of its conclusion.
Following the Sunday meeting of the deputy delegation heads, another session of the chief negotiators or their deputies will beheld if necessary, according to South Korea's Song.
Although it was hard to say when the current round of six-party talks would come to an end, all sides had agreed to reach an agreement that would embody the core contents of the talks through cooperation, Song said.
(Xinhua News Agency August 1, 2005)
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