Six-Party Talks to Resume in February

The fifth round of the six-party talks focusing on searching for a peaceful resolution to the North Korean nuclear weapons issue will resume on February 8 at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing.

In a regular briefing held on the afternoon of January 30, the spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, Jiang Yu, officially announced that all the party states involved agreed to restart the six-nation talks on February 8 in Beijing.

Jiang said, “The term of the session is open and will be dependent on the progresses made in the talks. We believe that the six-party talks are a gradual and complicated process, but that they are the best mechanism for achieving the goal of denuclearizing the Korean peninsula. We hope each party will continue to head toward that goal.”

Meanwhile, on the same day, North Korea and the U.S. embarked on the second round of financial talks in order to discuss the unfreezing of North Korea’s accounts at Macao’s Banco Delta Asia.

Delegations from both countries, headed by Oh Kwang Chul, DPRK Deputy Chairman of the National Finance Commission and Daniel Glazer, the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, started negotiations yesterday at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.

After arriving at Beijing Capital International Airport via an Air Koryo flight, one of Pyongyang’s delegates suggested that he has optimistic prospects for the upcoming talks, saying, “In the future, we might have a lot of chances to meet you journalists.”

orionha@donga.com