Heads of six-party talks to meet for new round of discussion

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-07-08 20:59

BEIJING -- Heads of the delegations attending the new round of six-party talks will meet on Thursday, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry at a regular press conference here on Tuesday.

"We expect the meeting to have a positive effect to facilitate the six-party talks moving to a new phase," said ministry spokesman Qin Gang.

The meeting would be targeted at realizing the second phase of the action plan in a comprehensive and balanced way, and other issues of common concern would also be touched upon, he said.

On the sideline of the meeting, the working groups on denuclearization at the Korean peninsular, as well as the economic and energy resources cooperation, will hold meetings too.

The six-party talks, involving China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the United States, the Republic of Korea, Japan and Russia, have focused on the denuclearization of the Korean peninsular. So far, six rounds of talks have been held in Beijing since 2003.

After the DPRK's demolishing of a cooling tower at the Yongbyon nuclear reactor and its nuclear declaration to China recently, the United States announced it would remove the DPRK from its list of state sponsors of terrorism within 45 days if the country met all its obligations under the six-party talks. All these moves paved the way for the new round of talks.