BEIJING – All six heads of delegations to the North Korea nuclear talks began meeting today at the start of the latest round of negotiations, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.
China, Japan, Russia, the United States and the two Koreas are gathering in Beijing to discuss the dismantlement of North Korea's nuclear weapons programs.
North Korea's readiness to discuss initial steps of its nuclear disarmament raised hopes for the first tangible progress at international talks on Pyongyang's atomic weapons program since they began more than three years ago.
Media reports have suggested the North may agree to freeze its main nuclear reactor and allow international inspectors in exchange for energy aid as a starting step to disarm.
But North Korean envoy Kim Kye Gwan said any moves by North Korea would be determined by the United States' attitude. “We are going to make a judgment based on whether the United States will give up its hostile policy and come out toward peaceful coexistence,” he said.
The North has twice boycotted the talks for more than a year, claiming various U.S. policies show Washington's thinly veiled desire to topple the Pyongyang regime.
Earlier today, the main U.S. envoy said he sensed “there is a real desire to have progress” by the North Koreans at the talks.
The lack of any on-the-ground results on disarming the North at the negotiations has raised the issue of the credibility of the talks. Since 2003, they have produced only a single agreement in September 2005 on principles for the North to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for aid and pledges that Washington won't seek the regime's ouster.
