Christopher Hill, US chief negotiator for the six-party talks,
said Saturday that he expects "some real changes" in next week's
six-party talks.
"I am not going to get into specific elements, but I think we
need to see some real changes on the ground," Hill, who is also the
assistant secretary of State, told reporters upon his arrival at
the Incheon International Airport.
"We've had a lot of consultations for this round, and reasonably
we can make some progress," Hill said. "Let's see if some of those
useful, substantive conversations we've had can be put to use in
negotiations."
"I think we have to go from having various declarations to
having agreement on implementation," Hill added. "So I am looking
for some implementation of the September 2005 agreement, meaning
something changes on the ground."
Diplomats from China, North Korea, the United States, South
Korea, Russia and Japan will gather in Beijing next Wednesday to
launch the third session of the fifth round of the six-party talks
on the nuclear issues on the Korean Peninsula.
Hill will stay in South Korea until next Monday to fine-tune a
strategy for the negotiation with Seoul and then fly to Japan.
At a joint statement adopted in the fourth round of the
six-party talks on Sept. 19 2005, North Korea agreed to drop its
nuclear weapon program in exchange for security guarantee, economic
aids and normalization of diplomatic ties with the United States.
However, the statement has not been implemented so far.
(Xinhua News Agency February 5, 2007)
