Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi today called to resume six-party talks on the nuclear program of North Korea.
“We are pleased to see some new positive interactions between stakeholders in the resumption of six-party talks,” said Yang.
In addition to the contacts between the envoys of the government of North Korea and the United States last July in New York, authorities of Pyongyang and Seoul have also met in in Indonesia.
“The parties should seize these opportunities, accommodate the concerns of the other, enhance mutual trust and improve relations in order to create conditions for resuming talks,” he added.
Yang was speaking two days before the head of nuclear issues of the two Koreas, Ri Yong Ho of the North and Wi Sung Lac of the South, will hold a new round of talks in Beijing to pave the way for restarting the talks.
“The mechanism of six-party talks is an efficient platform to address issues related to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula,” said the head of China’s diplomacy.
Yang participated in an international seminar attended by diplomats and experts from the six countries involved (the two Koreas, China, United States, Japan and Russia).
Beijing hosted the event at the sixth anniversary of the joint declaration signed after the fourth round of negotiations, on September 19, 2005, on the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
Started in 2003, the negotiating process stalled in late 2008 due to a series of political disagreements.
In 2009, Pyongyang announced that it abandoned the talks, while last year relations between the two Koreas were strained due to fatal incidents caused by the North against the neighboring country.