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No progress in six-party talks

Pallavi Aiyar

China's Foreign Minister meets chief delegates of all sides

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Beijing: As the six party talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear programme, entered into their third day in Beijing, there were no signs of a breakthrough. All sides to the negotiations have however agreed to keep talking for at least a few more days because "concrete negotiations," have started according to South Korea.

Negotiators have begun the difficult task of devising a way to implement a pledge made by Pyongyang in September 2005 to give up its nuclear weapons programme in exchange for security guarantees and economic aid. South Korean lead negotiator Chun Yung-woo told reporters that the United States had made a "formal, detailed and specific" proposal to resolve the impasse, but did not elaborate. He added however that the only accomplishment of the talks so far was that "understanding of the key elements of the disagreements in each of the parties has become clearer."

One-on-one talks

The U.S. and North Korea had a further round of one-on-one talks on Wednesday. The chief U.S. negotiator described his first round of talks on Tuesday with North Korean envoy Kim Kye-gwan as "lengthy and substantive."

China's Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, met the chief delegates of all the six parties involved on Wednesday afternoon. "In order to realise a win-win situation, the urgent thing is to make some plans to enact the [September 2005] joint statement and to realise all the commitments every party made in the joint statement," Mr. Li said after the meeting, according to a Ministry statement.

In the meantime North Korea's official media on Wednesday accused the U.S. of plotting to do it harm. "The U.S. scheme of negotiating at front and working on military provocation plans at the back simply reminds us that the United States cannot be trusted," said a commentary in the Rodong Sinmun daily.

The article is the closest North Korea's state media has come to commenting on the six-party talks.

North Korea and the U.S. also held a second round of talks lasting for five hours on Wednesday at the North Korean embassy in Beijing. Daniel Glaser, a Treasury Department official who is leading the U.S. team in the financial talks, said the talks would be "long-term".

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