Negotiators at the six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula
nuclear issue were yesterday working overtime to reach a deal
during lengthy, intensive and tough negotiations in Beijing.
They continued talks into the early hours of today with the aim
of narrowing differences on a China-prepared draft plan, which
proposes halting work within two months at nuclear sites in North
Korea, including the Yongbyon reactor, and supplying Pyongyang with
alternative energy sources.
Consultations were continuing at 1:30 AM; and a report by Yonhap
News Agency said that progress had been made and negotiators were
drawing up a revised draft agreement.
It said that "significant progress'" had been achieved and that
the negotiators may soon draw up the revised draft of the
agreement. Without naming sources, it said that if there is
agreement, delegates will meet for a plenary session this morning
and release a joint statement.
Representatives from China, the US, Japan, Russia, North and
South Korea gathered at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse for the
whole day.
The US and North Korea held two bilateral meetings, while Japan
and North Korea had their first governmental talks since Tokyo
slapped a series of economic sanctions on North Korea following
Pyongyang's ballistic missile test launches in July and a nuclear
test in October.
China held talks with all other five parties during the day.
Media reports suggested they are likely to conclude the third
phase of the fifth-round six-party talks today, which began on a
promising note after the US and North Korea showed a willingness to
compromise.
But US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, who is
also the top US nuclear negotiator, said Monday morning that
yesterday would be the last day of the talks, with or without a
deal.
"I'm off to the last day of the talks," Hill told reporters as
he left his hotel. "It is up to North Korea. We have put everything
on the table. They just need to make a decision."
But a Japanese lawmaker who met with China's chief delegate Wu
Dawei yesterday afternoon quoted him as saying that the focus of
the discussions was energy aid to North Korea.
For its side of the bargain, North Korea has agreed "to shut
down (its nuclear reactor in) Yongbyon, and to submit a list of
other nuclear facilities," Fukushiro Nukaga, former
director-general of the Japanese Defense Agency, quoted Wu as
saying.
(China Daily February 13, 2007)
