US chief negotiator Christopher Hill said in Beijing Friday
there obviously existed "some real difficulties" in the current
six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue talks.
"I'm not willing to say that this is going to be an unsuccessful
Friday. But obviously, we have some real difficulties ahead of
us."
All the five parties involved in the negotiation "have similar
interests," said Hill, referring to China, the US, South Korea,
Russia and Japan.
The US, South Korea and Japan, in particular, have "very very
similar interests" in the six-party talks, added the US assistant
secretary of state, who did not comment on North Korea, a major
player of the talks.
The US delegation would have one-on-one meetings with South
Korean and Japanese delegations Friday to discuss "where the
involved parties are and what the way forward is," he told
reporters before leaving the hotel.
The six parties resumed the fourth round of the six-party talks
in Beijing on Tuesday after a five-week recess. But the negotiation
got deadlocked since Wednesday as the North Korean delegation
insisted on the country's right to civilian nuclear programs,
especially when it demanded a light-water reactor.
The US side rejected the demand, saying it was a
non-starter.
The North Korean and US delegations held a 90-minute bilateral
meeting Thursday, the second meeting since Tuesday. Neither of the
two made immediate comment on the result of the meeting.
A Chinese delegation spokesman said Thursday, "there are still
great differences on certain issues (among the six parties)" on the
objectives and ways for denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.
"There is no progress today due to the differences between North
Korea and the US," a North Korean delegation spokesman said at its
first news briefing Thursday evening.
Chinese chief negotiator Wu Dawei acknowledged the six-party
talks are currently in difficulty, but he struck an optimistic
message by saying that the difficulties could be overcome.
(Xinhua News Agency September 16, 2005)
