US special representative on DPRK visits China

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-03-03 21:51

BEIJING -- US special representative on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Stephen Bosworth arrived here on Tuesday, kicking off his China visit.

"Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, Vice Foreign Minister and China's top negotiator of six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue Wu Dawei will meet with Bosworth during his stay in Beijing," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said at a regular press conference Tuesday afternoon.

Qin said China was willing to take this opportunity to exchange views with the United States on the issues of common concern, so as to promote the process of the six-party talks and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

"We hope all parties involved in the talks will enhance communications and cooperation, fulfill honestly their commitment......and push the six-party talks into a new phase at an early date," Qin said.

Bosworth, former US ambassador to the Republic of Korea (ROK), will coordinate the US government efforts on the six-party talks, and will be engaged in the effort to try to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

According to the statement by the US State Department, he will also visit Japan and the ROK to meet senior officials from the two countries, and he is scheduled to meet with senior Russian officials who are traveling in the region.

The Korean Peninsula nuclear issue is slated for discussion during Bosworth's meeting with the officials from China, Japan, the ROK and Russia. All five countries, along with the DPRK, are involved in the six-party talks.

The six parties ended their third meeting during the sixth round of talks last December in Beijing without substantial progress on how to verify the DPRK's nuclear facilities.