KEY POINTS:
BEIJING - Six-party talks aimed at dismantling North Korea's nuclear weapons will resume on December 18 after more than a year's suspension, China's Foreign Ministry said on Monday.
The fifth round of talks between the Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and host China stalled late last year over Pyongyang's objections to US financial penalties. Washington said North Korea was counterfeiting US currency and trafficking drugs.
"The second stage of the fifth round of the six-party talks will start from December 18 in Beijing after consultations among the parties," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement on its website (www.fmprc.gov.cn) after six weeks of diplomatic haggling over a date.
The fresh diplomatic push comes two months after North Korea tested a nuclear device on October 9, unleashing a wave of international condemnation that brought even its longtime supporter, China, behind UN Security Council sanctions.
The reclusive fortress state agreed on October 29 to rejoin the talks, but it took weeks of discussions to settle on a date.
In September last year, North Korea agreed to "abandoning all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programmes" in return for aid and security guarantees from the United States and other countries.
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Monday that the forthcoming talks needed to make at least some progress towards that goal.
"We have to move forward at the talks, even if it is only one or two steps, towards the goal of North Korea abandoning its nuclear weapons and its existing nuclear plans. We must induce North Korea to take concrete steps," he said in Tokyo after China's announcement of resumption of talks.
The United States' top negotiator in the talks, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, has also said North Korea must agree to concrete steps towards ending its nuclear weapons development in the fresh talks.
But the gulf of distrust between Pyongyang and Washington may make progress difficult, analysts said.
"I feel the chances of progress are small," said Zhu Feng, an international security expert at Peking University.
"The US and North Korea are willing to return to talks, but I haven't seen signs that they've reached consensus on how to make concrete progress. The standoff is still there."
Japan's Abe also said Japan would use the talks to raise its concerns about citizens abducted by North Korea in past years, an emotive issue that Pyongyang has said does not belong at the six-party table.
Even before the talks began, North Korea reiterated a call for Japan to be excluded.
"It is quite obvious that the delegation will only raise irrelevant issues at the talks to create complexity in the discussion and make them waste time," Rodong Sinmun, the official mouthpiece of the reclusive state said, according to KCNA news agency.
China has hosted the talks since August 2003, and the negotiations have become a diplomatic trophy for Beijing, eager to show itself as a trusted broker in international crises.
But Beijing's patience with Pyongyang -- reliant on Chinese energy and aid but snubbing Chinese leaders' open calls for restraint -- is increasingly limited, said Zhu.
"Beijing has a strong sense of urgency about making progress," he said. "It's too early to say this is the last chance, but I don't think time will always be there for North Korea."
- REUTERS
