Bilateral consultations start in 6-party talks
By Qin Jize (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-09-15 06:11

Japan and the DPRK also held an 80-minute bilateral meeting yesterday morning, and Japanese chief negotiator Kenichiro Sasae said the nuclear issue is the main issue at the moment, indicating that Japan may show flexibility on the abduction issue if necessary for reaching agreement on the joint document.

Japan has been seeking talks with the DPRK since the opening of the fourth round of the talks in July, but the DPRK had repeatedly turned down the request.

Chinese delegation spokesman Liu Jianchao said on Tuesday that many people are expecting breakthroughs or major progress in this phase of the Six-Party Talks.

He said that there should be no reason to be pessimistic about such a difficult process. "If we review the process, we indeed have achieved some substantive progress and consensus, which is very valuable and beneficial," he said.

According to reports from Seoul, the ROK delegation deliberately changed their residential place this time, so as not to stay in the same hotel as the US and Japanese delegations.

The ROK side said the reason is that they didn't want to leave people with the impression that the three countries are jointly putting pressure onto Pyongyang.