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The second round six-party talks on North Korea¡¯s nuclear arms program are to be held in Beijing starting Feb. 25.
North Korea¡¯s two official broadcasting organizations said Tuesday that the two Koreas, the United States and China have agreed after several rounds of negotiation to hold the second round of six-nation talks starting Feb. 25. Assistant Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuk hinted that the second round talks might be prolonged, saying right after the North¡¯s announcement that only the beginning date of the talks was set, and the period of the talks was not clearly decided. The round of talks would be held six months after the last six-nation talks took place in Beijing for three days starting Aug. 27, 2003.
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The heads of the delegations from six nations pose for a group photo at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing Aug. 27, 2003, ahead of multilateral talks on the North Korean nuclear crisis. Mitoji Yabunaka, director-general of the Asian and Oceanic Affairs Bureau of Japan¡¯s Foreign Ministry; James Kelly, U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs; Kim Yong Il, North Korea's deputy foreign minister; Chinese vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi; Alexander Losiukov, Russian deputy foreign minister; Lee Soo-Hyuck, South Korean deputy minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
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The government decided to hasten the establishment of a task force on the North¡¯s nuclear arms program in order to effectively deal with the second round of talks. It will hold a meeting between South Korea, the United States and Japan right before the talks to discuss their stances.
Expert view the talks with a fair amount of doubt, because neither the United States nor North Korea have yet to back down from their stances.
(Lee Ha-won, may2@chosun.com )
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