Chun Yung-woo, top negotiator of the Republic of Korea (ROK) for the six-party talks, said "the ROK will play its unique role" in the upcoming session of the six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue scheduled from today to Sunday.

"The core theme of this session is to make the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) declare all its nuclear programs and disable its nuclear facilities," Chun, special representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs of the ROK Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, told reporters at the airport upon his arrival in Beijing yesterday afternoon.

"All the six parties will have discussions on the road map of how to implement the achieved consensus," said Chun.

"The ROK delegation will do its best and play its unique role in the progress to facilitate achievements as early as possible," added the ROK chief delegate.

"The discussion would turn out to be an unbeaten path. It would be difficult but also important," Chun said.

Initiated in August 2003, the six-party talks have been a diplomatic route among China, the DPRK, the United States, the ROK, Russia and Japan to resolve the concerns brought about by the nuclear weapons program of the DPRK.

Kim Kye-gwan, top negotiator of the DPRK, arrived in Beijing earlier Tuesday morning. Russian top negotiator Alexander Losyukov arrived yesterday morning, who held that he was "cautiously optimistic" about the upcoming talks.

At the six-party talks in February this year, the DPRK agreed to declare all of its nuclear programs and disable all existing nuclear facilities in exchange for a total of one million tons of heavy fuel oil or equivalent aid, with an initial shipment of 50,000 tons.

The DPRK has shut down and sealed the nuclear facilities in Nyongbyon under the February aid-for-denuclearization agreement.

In a delegation heads meeting held this July in Beijing, envoys agreed to meet in Beijing this September to hear working group reports and work out a road map for the implementation of the general consensus reached in July.