All delegations arrive for six-party talks

Beijing (China)—With the arrival of U.S. and Japanese delegations on Sunday afternoon, all the five foreign delegations have converged in Beijing for the second phase of the fifth-round six-party talks.
Before the talks to be formally launched on Monday morning, the six delegations are expected to hold several bilateral consultations later on Sunday, making final preparations for the Monday’s resumption. Both the U.S. and Japanese sides will hold bilateral talks with China, the Republic of Korea (ROK) and Russia, respectively, later on Sunday. The DPRK (the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) needs to get serious about the denuclearization issue, said U.S. chief negotiator Christopher Hill upon his arrival. “If they want to get out of the sanctions, they should denuclearize,” Hill added. Hill and his delegation came by the same plane with the Japanese delegation which is headed by Kenichiro Sasae, director-general for Asian and Oceanian Affairs of Japanese Foreign Ministry.
Before arriving in Beijing, Hill and Sasae had talks in Tokyo on Saturday, and the two sides agreed that the fate of the upcoming multilateral talks depends on whether the DPRK takes concrete steps for denuclearization. “It is important that through this round of talks the DPRK will make a concrete step towards denuclearization,” said Sasae when arriving at hotel. “In order to reach this goal, Japan will do its best and take suitable policies to attend the talks,” Sasae added.
The Russian delegation arrived in Beijing on Sunday morning and the delegations from DPRK and ROK have arrived here Saturday. Launched in 2003, the six-party talks have been held for five rounds. However, the talks have remained on hold since the DPRK walked out of the negotiations more than a year ago in response to U.S. sanctions. Over the past 13 months, the parties concerned have been engaged in a flurry of diplomatic activities in order to resume the talks.
A Japanese delegation headed by Kenichiro Sasae, director-general for Asian and Oceanian Affairs of Japanese Foreign Ministry, arrived in Beijing Sunday afternoon for the second phase of the fifth-round six-party talks. The Russian delegation to the six-party talks arrived in Beijing on Sunday morning for the second phase of the fifth round of the talks. The delegations of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the Republic of Korea (ROK) had arrived here on Saturday morning.
A U.S. delegation headed by Christopher Hill, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs and the top U.S. negotiator on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, arrived in Beijing Sunday afternoon for the second phase of the fifth-round six-party talks. “I’m here to do more progress on the September, 2005 agreement, “ Hill told reporters at the Beijing Capital International Airport. “The DPRK (the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) needs to get serious about the denuclearization issue,” the U.S. chief negotiator said, adding “a lot of good things” could happen if the DPRK gets serious about the denuclearization issue.

—The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item