Second Round of Six-way Talks in October

On the second day of talks at the Diaoyutai state guest house in Beijing on August 28, North and South Korea, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia focused on dismantlement of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, how to offer a security guarantee to its regime, and adoption of a joint declaration.

The six parties were reported to have agreed to hold a second round of six-way talks as early as October, since they all recognized the need for further talks, and to resolve the nuclear standoff peacefully.

The six countries will reportedly complete the talks by issuing a joint declaration on the morning of August 29, which states that these multi-party negotiations were a useful opportunity to discuss matters of concern of the six nations and North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

According to a diplomatic source close to the Beijing talks, negotiating teams from the six nations discussed a joint declaration draft which puts emphasis on continuing six-way talks, proposed by the Chinese government, and a meeting in the morning at the U.S. embassy, between South Korea, the U.S. and Japan, was said to have been held to fine-tune the three nations’ views.

Meanwhile, before and after the plenary session on August 28, the six nations had bilateral or three-way meetings among themselves to narrow their differences as the three-day talks are approaching the end.

"At today’s plenary session, each negotiating team showed its own views on yesterday’s keynote speeches. After the session, there were various individual meetings," Shin Bong-kil, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry’s spokesman, said.

The two Koreas held a 30-minute meeting right after a reception, organized by Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, on the evening of August 27, and, they also were said to have an unofficial contact during the plenary session on August 28.

And North Korea and the U.S. also had discussions on various subjects and North Korea and Japan held two 20-minute bilateral meetings before and after the plenary session, during which they talked about the Japanese citizens who were kidnapped by the North.

Meanwhile, regarding the individual discussions between Pyongyang and Washington, a diplomatic source who has ties to the U.S. administration said, "The North Koreans asked the U.S. negotiating team if the U.S. would not raise other issues like human rights and missiles if it promises to dismantle its nuclear weapons program."

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