In comparison with the former three rounds of Korean nuclear
issue talks, there are uncertainties in the current round, which
has again become the focus of world attention.??
This implies a more open-minded, flexible and pragmatic
diplomacy in the ongoing negotiations. Such a diplomatic practice
aims to help all parties to work for a real result for the talks in
a more effective manner and seek an eventual solution to the
nuclear deadlock which is in conformity with interests of all the
six nations.
Before the talks reopened on Tuesday morning, it was widely
considered that if the six parties, namely China, the US, Japan,
Russia, North and South Korea, fail to overcome the impasse, the US
and Japan will probably file the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue
with the UN and the framework of six-way talks will be brought to
an end. After the talks reopened, however, no end date was fixed.
This uncertainty not only left sufficient time for diplomatic
mediation, but also showed to the outside that all the six sides
desired to make best of the opportunity of the talks to resolve the
Korean nuclear issue as early as possible.
There were also uncertainties in contents and patterns of the
current round of talks. It had great flexibility in agenda and
topics, taking into account requirements of the multi-party
diplomacy.???
In the previous three rounds of talks, keynote addresses of
chief delegates were arranged in the opening ceremonies. In this
round, the keynote speeches that demonstrated the basic stances of
the six nations were planned on the morning of the second day of
talks. The new arrangement not only offered an additional chance
for the delegates to get together, but also allow one-on-one
contacts prior to the standpoint demonstration, in which each party
would find out the other parties' bottom line. This was conducive
to creating cozier atmosphere for the consultations.
The current round of talks has also had most of the time
earmarked for small-scale bilateral and trilateral meetings. The
timetables, objects, venues and contents of the meetings were
totally up to delegates themselves to decide. Except for the
opening session, all the agendas were yet to be determined. Even
such important arrangements, such as chief delegates' meeting and
plenary session, were subject to readjustment almost at any moment.
Reporters discovered that concrete daily agendas of the talks were
finalized in the previous evening and even in the morning of the
very day when the arrangements performed.
Over the three days since the talks re-opened, host China alone
held 12 one-on-one contacts with the other five parties. The
open-ended, frequent bilateral diplomacy provided enough room for
all the sides to exchange opinions, improve mutual understanding,
dispel misunderstanding and reduce differences.
Contacts between North Korea and the US merited more
attention.
Discarding negative attitudes in the former rounds of talks, the
two almost held a one-on-one meeting every day in the current round
of talks. Their first meeting lasted 75 minutes, and the time
increased to nearly three hours in the third day of talks.
All of the meetings between North Korea and the US these days
enjoyed a pragmatic atmosphere, albeit differences remained in the
alleged uranium enrichment scheme of North Korea and in
preconditions for the nation to dismantle nuclear programs. The
somehow upbeat consultation aura added to signs of hope for a
peaceful settlement of the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue through
dialogues.???
(Xinhua News Agency July 29, 2005)