China: Nations close to N. Korea statement (AP) Updated: 2005-08-29 07:04
WASHINGTON - China's ambassador to the United States said Sunday that he
believed envoys from six nations are very close to agreeing on a joint statement
that could eventually lead to North Korea abandoning its nuclear weapons
program, AP reported.
|
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, right, shakes hands with
Kim Yong Il, vice minister of North Korean's Foreign Ministry, in
Pyongyang, North Korea's capital, on Sunday August 28, 2005.
[AP] | An earlier round of talks recessed on Aug.
7 with no agreement, and the negotiations were to resume this week in Beijing,
although no exact date has been set. The diplomats are trying to agree on a set
of principles that would act as signposts for an agreement scrapping North
Korea's nuclear program.
"The (Korean) peninsula should be denuclearized, and that should be the goal
of the six party talks," Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong said on CNN's "Late Edition."
"And I think we are very close to a joint statement."
When asked whether China, with its close ties to Pyongyang, should take a
larger role in persuading North Korea to stop its nuclear program, Zhou said the
six nations åK½ï¿½ the two Koreas, the United States, China, Russia and Japan åK½ï¿½
needed to work together.
"It's not just what China should do alone," Zhou said. "I think this is
something we need to work together, and without that I don't think we will be
able to accomplish it."
The latest nuclear standoff with North Korea was sparked in 2002 after U.S.
officials said the North admitted to a secret uranium enrichment program.
Three previous rounds of six-nation talks in Beijing since 2003 have failed
to bridge differences.
|
| | Taiwan experts in Sichuan for panda selection | | | | | Police drill in Guizhou | | | | | Grape-eating contest in Xinjiang | | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Today's
Top News |
|
|
|
Top China
News |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|