6-Party Talks to Be Held on Dec. 6-8
By Yoon Won-sup
Staff Reporter
A new round of six-party talks, aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear ambition, will likely be held in Beijing on Dec. 6-8, according to Russia's chief negotiator, Thursday.
Alexander Losyukov, deputy foreign minister of Russia, said that Russia has agreed to the dates, suggested by the host country China, Interfax reported.
He said that the coming gathering will assess the extent to which the parties have been abiding by their pledges under the agreement reached in February.
Some diplomatic sources in Seoul said that parties including Seoul and Moscow agreed to the dates while others have not agreed yet.
``The dates are not finalized yet because all the parties didn't give their consent,'' a source said. ``But the talks will likely be held in the first half of December.''
North Korea began disabling the Yongbyon nuclear reactor, fuel reprocessing plants and a fuel fabrication plant under the supervision of U.S. inspectors early this month.
Sung Kim, director of Korean affairs office at the U.S. State Department, will reportedly visit North Korea at the end of this month to check the disablement process.
North Korea pledged to complete the process and provide a complete list of its nuclear programs by the end of this year. In return, it will get economic aid and political concessions such as normalization of relations with the United States.
The talks involve the two Koreas, the United States, China, Russia and Japan.