China proposed to set up working groups to deal with
implementation of the September-19 joint statement, said US chief
negotiator Christopher Hill on Monday afternoon.
"We would expect to have several working groups that will be
organized to figure out how to implement energy and economic
assistance to the DPRK, and we also have a working group on the
eventual normalization of the DPRK-US relation," Hill told
reporters at a hotel in Beijing.
"So I think the Chinese side is telling the idea of setting up
working groups," said Hill, also assistant secretary of state for
East Asian and Pacific affairs.
Chief negotiators of the six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula
nuclear issue gathered in the Chinese capital Monday after an
interval of 13 months, initiating a new phrase of negotiation on
the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
The six parties held a plenary session on Monday morning after a
head-gathering, vowing to take the opportunity to implement the
landmark joint statement.
"I suspect in the next couple of days we could get down to
discuss what will be the working groups like and what they are
trying to deal," Hill said, noting that it is just "preliminary
session" and no "real surprise" in the first day of the nuclear
talks.
The chief negotiator also emphasized the current situation of
the six-party talks as "coming to an important juncture".
"So we are at the fork of road. I can't tell which road the DPRK
is choosing. We could go either road and would like a
denuclearization via a diplomatic way," said Hill.
"We don't have the option to work away from this problem," Hill
added.
Launched in 2003, the six-party talks have been held for five
rounds. However, the talks have remained stalled since the DPRK
walked out of the negotiations more than a year ago in response to
US sanctions.
In late November, chief negotiators of North Korea, the United
States, South Korea and Japan came to Beijing to join their Chinese
counterpart in laying the groundwork for the resumption of the
talks.
(Xinhua News Agency December 19, 2006）