Delegates to the six-party talks had finished the agenda for
Wednesday's meeting and agreed to meet again Thursday, sources with
the Chinese press center said.
Although they didn't set the end date for the talks on the
Korean Peninsula nuclear issue that had lasted a record nine days,
US chief negotiator Christopher Hill said the negotiation was
nearing the end.
"I think we are really getting to the end of this negotiating
process. I am not going to predict it is over today or tomorrow, I
just don't know," Hill told reporters after he returned to the
hotel.
"But, certainly, in terms of the negotiating process, through
this week and the past ten days, I think we are getting to the end
of this," he said.
He said the United States had made a series of bilateral
consultations, including those with the Japanese delegation and the
Chinese delegation in the morning. The US delegation had lunch with
the Russian delegation and exchanged views.
The six parties are still striving for reaching a consensus,
said Japanese delegation head Sasae Kenichiro Wednesday
afternoon.
Sasae told reporters the six delegations to the ongoing nuclear
talks continued to make revisions to and coordinate their stance on
the latest draft of a common document during Wednesday's
negotiation, with China as the key coordinator.
A series of one-on-one contacts were held Wednesday for
negotiators to exchange views on the latest draft common document
that is aimed at establishing a framework for future talks on the
eventual settlement of the nuclear issue.
Earlier reports said a chief delegates' session was planned for
Wednesday afternoon, but it was not held, which observers say may
indicate the failure to make a "final comment" on the draft common
document Hill said the six delegations would make on Wednesday.
Hill said he had not been touched with the delegation of the
Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), another major part in
the negotiation, on the text Wednesday.
The DPRK delegation was not reached for comments. But in its
first open statement Tuesday afternoon, it admitted differences
with the United States.
DPRK delegation head Kim Kye-gwan said that his delegation had
hours of consultations with the US delegation over past days.
"Though there are disagreements between the two, we wish to be able
to minimize the differences and achieve a result in the talks," he
said.
Kim, also vice foreign minister of DPRK, said, "It is well known
that our stance is whether we are going to give up our nuclear
weapons and nuclear arms program depends on whether the United
States will remove its nuclear threat against the DPRK and build up
mutual understanding between our two sides."
(Xinhua News Agency August 3, 2005)