Negotiators of the six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue met in Beijing on Thursday afternoon for a fresh round of discussions after a nine-month stalemate.
The meeting, held at the Diaoyutai State Guest House, focused on steps and measures to realize the second phase of the action plan in a comprehensive and balanced way.
"This meeting is a power station for the comprehensive implementation of second phase of the action plan, as well as a turning point for the six-party talks to go into a new phase," Chinese negotiator Wu Dawei said at the opening ceremony.
Wu, also vice foreign minister, said the goal was to realize the second phase of the action plan in a comprehensive and balanced way with joint efforts from all relevant sides and promote the process of the talks into a new phase.
He also introduced his new counterparts to the press before the ceremony.
The new chief envoys include Kim Sook, special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs of the Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry of the Republic of Korea (ROK), Akitaka Saiki, director general of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau of Japan, and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin.
"All sides are meeting for the same goal, and the terminal is to realize the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and normalization of relations between relevant countries, as well as to construct the peace and security mechanism in northeast Asia," Wu said.
The talks, which group China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the United States, ROK, Russia and Japan, are scheduled to run for three days in the Chinese capital.
Focus of the session
The fresh round of six-party talks came after a series of breakthroughs of the denuclearization process: the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) submitted the long-awaited account of its nuclear activities and Washington, in return, started the procedures of taking it off the list of state sponsors of terrorism and lifting sanctions against Pyongyang, after the eye-catching explosion of a cooling tower at its Yongbyon nuclear center.
