Diplomats?were gathering in Beijing Sunday for imminent nuclear talks, which were expected to realize a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula.??

The US is "very much committed" to the fourth round of six-party talks, which was due to open in Beijing on Tuesday, Christopher Hill, head of the US delegation, said Sunday afternoon.

 

"We would like to make measurable progress.... I wouldn't expect this to be the last set of negotiation," Hill said upon his arrival at the Beijing International Club for residence.

 

The new round of the talks, which involves China, the US, Russia, Japan, North and South Korea will begin Tuesday morning at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in downtown Beijing, the venue for the previous three rounds of the six-party talks.

 

The North and South Korean delegations arrived respectively on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning.

 

The two delegations held a 100-minute meeting Sunday morning and reached consensus on "many issues," including forging a framework for the denuclearization in the Korean Peninsula, according to Song Min-soon, deputy foreign minister and head of the South Korean delegation.

 

The South Korean delegation will also have bilateral contact with the other four delegations, according to Song.

 

"The new round of the six-party talks should be made to contribute to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. It is hard to expect the solution to the nuclear issue without active and sincere efforts from the US," the North Korean Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a signed article.

 

The Japanese delegation arrived in Beijing Sunday evening and the Russian delegation is expected to arrive Monday.

 

Sasae Kenichiro, director-general of the Foreign Ministry's Asia and Oceanian Affairs Bureau and head of the Japanese delegation, told reporters upon his arrival that Japan will try to make progress in the talks along with the other parties.

 

He also said Japan hopes to resolve the missile and abduction issue with North Korea.

 

After the arrival of all the five delegations, the Chinese side will host a banquet in their honor Monday evening at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse.

 

The fourth round of six-party talks, which was originally scheduled to be held last September, has been postponed due to various reasons.

 

The resumption of the talks has rekindled the hope for a breakthrough to the nuclear dismantlement deadlock, observers said.

 

The Korean Peninsula nuclear issue broke out in the 1990s. From 2003 to 2004, the six countries held three rounds of talks in Beijing, but without any substantial progress.

 

Compared to the previous three rounds, which last usually three days each, the new round has a number of uncertainties, said Piao Jianyi, a professor with the Asian-Pacific Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

 

North Korea announced itself as a nuclear nation last February, and heads of delegations for four parties have all changed, except for the North Korean and Russian ones.

 

"Signs have indicated that it would be very hard to see major breakthrough or progress for the talks," said another Chinese scholar Jin Linbo in an interview with Xinhua.

 

(Xinhua News Agency July 25, 2005)