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BEIJING - North Korea hinted at flexibility in its position on six-party talks today, raising hopes that a new round of negotiations aimed at dismantling its nuclear weapons program could make headway.
The North's chief negotiator, Kim Kye-gwan, was speaking in Beijing where he met his Chinese counterpart, Wu Dawei, and South Korean envoy Chun Yung-woo in a flurry of diplomacy surrounding the nuclear talks.
"Everything can change," Kim told reporters after meeting Chun, when asked if there had been any change in the North's position. He did not elaborate.
A round of the talks, which group the two Koreas, China, the United States, Japan and Russia, ended inconclusively in December, but three days of meetings in Berlin last week between Kim and Washington's envoy, Christopher Hill, have raised prospects for a breakthrough.
Chun said Kim had been positive about what North Korea viewed as a change in the US approach following the Berlin talks.
"We confirmed the possibility for progress in the next round of North Korea nuclear talks," the South Korean envoy told reporters after arriving in Seoul from Beijing.
Asked if talks could resume by February 5, he said: "Talks will resume at least by then ... China will announce dates within the next two to three days."
A date for another session of negotiations, which have continued on and off since 2003, was expected to be announced soon.
"We and the North agreed on resuming (the talks) in a few days, but the positions of the other countries involved need to be checked so there is no confirmation yet," South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted Chun as saying.
"China will announce the schedule in a few days."
Diplomatic efforts to convince North Korea to scrap its atomic program have taken on new urgency since Pyongyang defied international warnings and conducted its first nuclear test in October, triggering UN sanctions.
Timetable
China said the next round of talks should take steps to implement an agreement reached in September 2005, in which North Korea agreed in principle to abandon its nuclear arms in exchange for aid and security guarantees from the other parties.
"We should also discuss the setting up and perfecting of a mechanism to carry out the statement and a general timetable should be drafted to ensure its implementation," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a regular news conference.
"All parties concerned are making efforts to resume talks and bring about the positive implementation of the joint statement on September 19," Liu said.
The ministry said later on its website that Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing had "exchanged views" with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on the issue by telephone late on Tuesday Beijing time. It gave no further details.
Progress at the six-party talks has been impeded by North Korea's insistence that Washington lift financial restrictions against it and release US$24 million of its funds frozen at Macau's Banco Delta Asia.
Washington designated the bank a "money-laundering concern", calling it a "willing pawn" in the North's illicit financial activities.
Chun said a second round of parallel financial talks between North Korean officials and the US Treasury Department could also convene soon.
"I believe the meeting will start in Beijing before the six-way talks resume," Yonhap quoted him as saying.
Japan's chief negotiator, Kenichiro Sasae, is expected to arrive in Beijing on Wednesday and South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon visits from Thursday, continuing diplomatic efforts on North Korea's nuclear program.
- REUTERS
